


The Stuff of Legends

by DarthTella



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Meddling TARDIS, More tags to be added, Romance, Season 3 rewrite, Telepathy, telepathic bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:14:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24331894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthTella/pseuds/DarthTella
Summary: After their close call at Canary Wharf, the Doctor and Rose's relationship is able to blossom into a true romance as they're able to keep travelling together. But Rose seems to be developing telepathic abilities that would have a far-reaching impact on their relationship, but that mystery needs to be put on hold temporarily until they can sort out the trouble surrounding the bride that suddenly appeared on the TARDIS. And that trouble is just the beginning of this new adventure. (SEASON 3 REWRITE WITH ROSE!)
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 35
Kudos: 58





	1. Day After Doomsday

**Author's Note:**

> This story is going to be quite familiar to some of you as this is a re-upload. I've reworked many of the details as I wasn't happy with the flow before. I still have a lot of editing to do on what I had already written, but hopefully your comments will keep me motivated.

_The white wall seemed to stretch on forever. Her hands were already throbbing in pain; the skin on palms were red and raw from where she was hanging on to the lever for dear life._

_She pounded her hands against the wall hoping that somehow it would give way and she could escape this place._

“ _Take me back! Take me back!” She was trying to scream, but her voice was too hoarse. Hot tears streamed down her face as she sobbed._

_The man she loved was lost to her, trapped on the other side of the void with no way for her to get back. Forever._

_No, wait. There he was! Calling out to her. She could see the cold, sandy beach through his ghostly appearance._

_Hold on. Why was she at the beach all of a sudden?_

_She had no time to ponder that. The apparition of her love was speaking, trying to make it seem like everything was okay. But everything was not okay. He was saying goodbye. No! Time was slipping away! Less than two minutes, he said. She had to say the words she had kept so close to her heart, but never dared to say! They almost got caught in her throat, but she forced them out anyway._

“ _I love you.”_

_Her love smiled at her, and she could tell his hearts were breaking._

_All he could say was her name. Then he disappeared as time ran out…_

* * *

The small sofa inside the lounge of the Tyler flat was far too small to comfortably accommodate someone as tall as the Doctor. Sitting upright he was fine, but actually trying to lay down flat on it was incredibly awkward for he was about a foot too tall. Even if he tried to curl up it was no use as trying to sleep all squashed up like that wasn’t at all comfortable. This current incarnation of him was proper skinny this time around, but this sofa was still far too narrow for him to settle on. The only two beds in the entire flat were currently occupied by Rose and a very loudly snoring Jackie, and the thought of returning to the TARDIS to sleep didn’t sound that appealing to him after what happened that day.

Jackie had insisted they all stay in the flat that night as she was obviously still shaken up by everything they just went through. For once in his life, the Doctor didn’t argue. He had very nearly lost Rose today due to the short-sightedness and greed of Torchwood. Their incompetence and complete lack of common sense had ripped a tear between universes, allowing not only the Cybermen to cross over from Pete’s World but inviting the Daleks in too. And to top everything off, he found himself in the position of actually having Jackie Tyler to thank for saving Rose’s life!

The Doctor never wanted to put Jackie in that kind of danger again, especially not after the incident with the Forzell a few months back. Except he put her front and centre, accidentally pulling her out of the TARDIS instead of Rose. But this mistake had turned out to be one of the best things to have happened. Jackie had vehemently refused to go to Pete’s World and leave Rose behind and therefore didn’t get any Void Stuff on her. So when the Doctor had opened the Void in reverse to get rid of all the Daleks and Cybermen Jackie was able to fix Rose’s malfunctioning lever and was able to hang on to her daughter long enough for the Void to collapse in on itself.

All day long he could also feel two distinct timelines battling with each other: the one he had just experienced, and one where he had lost both of them for good. While it was true the Doctor usually bragged about his ‘superior physiology’, this level of temporal whiplash was exhausting on his time senses giving him a mighty headache. For once in his life, he felt a good night’s sleep was in order.

But he just couldn’t settle no matter how hard he tried.

The Doctor blew out a heavy breath as he wondered to himself for the umpteenth time if this was indeed the storm he had felt approaching when he took Rose to the 2012 Olympics. If this was the battle the Beast on Krop-tor had been prophesying about where Rose had been destined to die. He initially didn’t believe a word that Beast had said, of course. But, he also couldn’t deny the coincidences. Still, he felt that the storm had passed, just as Rose said it would. She always did know the exact right thing to say.

The Earth was safe (for now) and he was still with the ones he held the most dear to his hearts. He could no longer deny that he was a part of this little family, and he decided that he wouldn’t have it any other way. He mused that their Christmas together right after he regenerated should have been his first clue. Sitting there, chatting, laughing, wearing those silly paper crowns. Those were things that his leather-clad self would’ve balked at. But when he was reborn into a body that was custom made to Rose’s liking, he found that he actually craved those sort of moments from time to time. Domestics didn’t scare him half as much as he pretended they did. After all, he did have a reputation to maintain.

But domestics came with a price sometimes. For instance he was still stuck on this bloody uncomfortable sofa. He had a feeling Rose saw right through his usual facade of always being alright and not tired at all. She had pulled him into a tight hug and even surprised him with a quick kiss on the cheek before she went off to bed. It could just be the exhaustion making him feel a bit soppy, but he could swear time stood still for that brief moment. Even now he could feel the faint tingle from where her lips had touched his skin. It was obvious things were changing between them. Would it be so wrong if he just gave in?

He punched at the cushion again finding it just didn’t have enough give to support his head properly. That, and he needed something to vent his frustration out on. It was the same argument he’d been having with himself ever since he regenerated, and if he were completely honest even a bit before. But all the excuses he had made to himself as to why he and Rose could be together were beginning to sound feeble to him. Yes, he would lose her one day and he could live on for centuries without her. But was that worth not creating memories with her now? He nearly lost her today and he could feel phantom pains of the intense, debilitating grief that would have overcome him if events had occurred differently.

Life would have been completely meaningless without her. Would he have had the strength to keep living?

The Doctor shook those thoughts from his brain. It didn’t happen. Rose was safe and sound in the other room. But for someone who could see all that is, all that was, and what should never be, it was a hard feat to ignore the what-ifs. He focused inwardly, willing his hearts to slow down and for his body to relax. After several minutes he finally wriggled into a position where he could potentially catch a little bit of sleep; he’d just have one hell of a crick in his neck come the next morning. He was just on the verge of dozing off when he heard a soft whimper from down the hall. The Doctor almost tripped over his discarded trainers as he rushed towards the source of the sound.

Rose’s bedroom.

The Doctor just barely remembered to slow his pace when he reached her door. So many times he had just barged in on her in the past and had random items thrown in his general direction by his very disgruntled companion. The Doctor eased the door open and could just make out Rose’s figure curled up in her blankets with her back to him. Quiet sobs broke through the quiet and they broke the Doctor’s hearts. All thoughts of the repercussions Jackie could inflict on him if she found him in here fled from his mind as he walked over to the other side of the bed so he could see her face. Rose startled slightly when he entered her line of vision and he muttered an apology. Seeing the raw fear in her eyes, he sat down carefully on the mattress and reached out to smooth her mussed hair. Rose jumped slightly at this unusual show of affection and the Doctor inwardly chided himself for being so forward. He was just about to pull his hand back but Rose leaned into his touch before she quickly sat up and tackled him in a desperate hug.

“You okay?” He asked gently. Rose shook her head as her paralysing fear kept her from getting the words out. He could only imagine one thing that could steal her voice away like this. “Bad dream?” She nodded.

“The worst.” She croaked her voice still thick from tears and sleep.

“Want to talk about it?” He offered. Rose shook her head. “Anything I can do to help?” Rose tightened her hold on him. The Doctor shot a quick worried glance at the door for any signs of Jackie, but her snores were still coming through the thin walls of the flat. He pulled out of Rose’s arms despite her groan of protest and quickly settled himself under the duvet. Rose wasted no time snuggling back up to him; his chest now becoming her pillow. He felt an odd tapping against his ribs, and it took him a moment to realise she was tapping her finger in time with his heartbeats. They were beating a bit too fast, and he willed them to slow a bit. An enormous feat considering how tightly Rose was wrapped around him. Her hair tickled his nose causing him to inhale the scent of her shampoo. Did she nick some of the banana scented stuff? Cheeky. He couldn’t help burrowing his nose deeper into her blonde tresses.

“Promise me you’ll never leave me behind.” Her question dredged up his guilt from earlier that day. He had briefly considered trying to get one of those dimension hoppers around her neck without her knowing. For one fleeting moment he actually thought sending her away was the best decision. She would be safe in Pete’s world, and she’d have her whole family back, her father included. But just as Rose had pointed out to him time and time again, his decisions weren’t always the wisest ones.

“I’d never, ever leave you behind. Besides, even if I tried to you’d just find your way back to slap me silly. Stubborn, Rose Tyler. That’s what you are.” The Doctor finally cracked a smile as he heard Rose’s watery chuckle. She de-tangled herself enough so she could look him in the eye.

“Oh, you love it.” She patted him playfully on the cheek. He caught her hand, twined his fingers with hers placing their hands on the pillow between them. He stared at her for a long moment. There was still a bit of make-up smudged under her red and puffy eyes, her hair was a mess and she looked absolutely shattered. But to him Rose Tyler was still the most beautiful being in the universe. For once he didn’t even try to dismiss the feeling. He stoked it, let it grow until he felt like his chest was about to burst with warmth and affection and the other emotion that he was still petrified of giving a name to. He leaned in closer to her, and he could feel the hitch in Rose’s breath as the tip of his nose brushed against hers.

“Yes, I do.” He breathed.

They remained locked in this staring contest, their breath mingling between them. Neither seemingly willing to back off. The Doctor’s resolve to hold Rose at arms length crumbled completely. Rose whispered his name. This was all the permission he needed. The Doctor’s eyes fluttered closed as he finally gave in and kissed her gently. It was brief and chaste, bit it still set his soul alight. Suddenly, he had Rose’s fingers in his hair as she returned his kiss. His mind went blissfully blank as he let himself get lost in her touch.

“Forever, remember?” He whispered against her lips when they parted once more. Rose took in a shaky breath and nodded.

“Forever.” She confirmed, sealing her promise with another kiss. A contented sigh escaped his throat causing him to part his lips slightly, and Rose used the opportunity to deepen the kiss. Her mouth opened up against his and the Doctor felt a pleasant tingle ripple up his spine when she gently brushed the tip of her tongue against his before it retreated back into her mouth. And of course, he chased right after it. This time, it was Rose who sighed as he countered her teasing touch with several of his own and she matched every single one of them. He imagined for a moment that he could hear her thoughts, and actually feel her emotions especially the fear of being left behind. His teasing touch turned into a soothing one, and he poured as much love as he could into his kiss, praying to every deity that he didn’t believe in until that point that she understood how he felt even if he could never tell her in words.

They were well on their way to making this their first real proper snog, his brain already cataloguing all the subtle movements that Rose liked best. While the Doctor was thoroughly enjoying himself, he also feared how Jackie would react if she found them doing this in the middle of her flat. He gentled her out of the kiss, finding himself slightly breathless despite his respiratory bypass. A small smile developed on her kiss swollen lips that he returned before he pulled her in closer, tucking her head under his chin. With his face now hidden from her view his smile crumbled away and was replaced with a look of determination. He swore right then and there that he would do anything in his power to make good on his promise: she would be with him for as long as time would allow her to. He felt a pulse from the TARDIS brush against his mind, an affirmation that She was fully supportive of his promise and She would do anything to have Her wolf stay for as long as possible. His smiled returned, the old girl really loved Rose too.

He felt more than heard Rose yawn and he pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead.

“Get some sleep. I’ll stay with you.” He whispered.

“Mum’s gonna kill you.” Rose giggled softly not making any sort of move to push him away.

“I know.” He replied, as he began to rub small circles on her back with his fingertips. Little did she know he was absently writing his proper name all over her back in Gallifreyan repeatedly.

He held Rose tight as her breathing evened out and she was once again sleeping peacefully and he allowed himself to do the same, content in the arms of the woman he loved.

* * *

Rose blinked at the harsh sunlight that was streaming in through her bedroom window and groaned as a sharp pain pierced through her temples, squeezing her eyes tightly shut again.

“Mornin’ sleepy head.” She startled at the sound of the Doctor’s voice, completely forgetting that he crawled in bed with her after she had that horrible nightmare. But it had felt so real. After her travels in the TARDIS, she had learned to spot the differences between dreams and reality—just in case an alien tried to hijack her thoughts or something—but this dream was so disturbingly realistic she could’ve sworn it actually happened. That the Doctor had left her behind, and could only appear as a ghost to tell her “goodbye”.

She shook her head, and tried to banish the dream images far away. She know the Doctor would never willingly leave her behind. He depended on her just as much as she depended on him. As she shook her head, however she found that the movement made her head throb in pain, but she breathed through it. She’d had hangovers that felt worse than this. She finally cracked her eyes open again, as the Doctor was now bouncing up and down on her bed, loudly trying to cajole her awake. She couldn’t help but laugh at his severe case of bed head and couldn’t resist the urge to run her fingers through his hair. His eyes slipped closed at the contact and he leaned into her touch. And did he just purr? She wanted to pull him down to her, to kiss him again like they did last night. She somehow resisted that urge. She liked this version of him and didn’t want her mother to slap him into his next regeneration.

“You sure you aren’t a cat?” She giggled deciding to tease him a little, petting his hair with her nails barely scraping against his scalp. His eyes popped open as his face morphed into a grimace.

“Rose please: I’m sure there are far better animals you could compare me to.” He whined. She shook her head fondly at him, and tried not grimace herself. Blimey, this was turning into a massive headache. Tossing her blankets away, playfully throwing them over the Doctor’s head and covering him with them and muffling his surprised squeak, she moved to get out of the bed. A wave of dizziness overcame her and she clutched at her head when she stood up. The Doctor was immediately beside her dragging her bedsheets behind him as he hadn’t fully de-tangled himself. She felt an unfamiliar tingle on her skin where his hands clutched her bare shoulders steadying her.

“Easy does it.” His voice was gentle, but it reverberated through her skull. She waved him off. There was sharp sort of spark when his hands broke away from her skin and she gasped before quickly covering up with a yawn. She didn’t want to worry him just in case it truly was nothing. His voice may have just seemed louder than normal due to her headache, and maybe that spark was just static electricity? Or maybe she was just rationalising something truly strange and new.

“‘M fine.” She murmured. “Just stood up too fast.” She smiled weakly at him. She could still see the concern in his eyes but he nodded. “I just… need the loo.” She said awkwardly, finding an excuse to leave the room that wasn’t a complete lie. She all but bolted out of the room and ran to the loo, almost knocking her mother over in the process. Jackie’s shout of protest sent a further spike of pain through her head. She had then expected her mum to then be yelling at the Doctor for spending the night in her bedroom, but to her shock it never came. All she heard was her saying “Knew you two were together.” in an almost amused voice, and imagined the Doctor just standing there, blushing and gaping like a fish.

Rose opened up the medicine cabinet, grabbed the bottle of paracetamol that her mum always kept on hand and dumped a couple into her palm and poured herself a glass of cold water. She always hated taking pills, but she wanted to get rid of this headache before it got any worse. She swallowed him one pill at a time. The first went down fine, but she almost choked on the second one as it caught in her throat. The bitter taste of the medicine from the chalky tablet coated the back of her tongue, and that made her gag some more.

“You okay in there?” She heard the Doctor ask from the other side of the door. Of course he followed her. He was always hanging about when she was getting ready. Always bouncing on his toes and speaking excitedly about where and when he was thinking of taking her. Usually she found his antics amusing and his enthusiasm absolutely contagious in the best sort of way, but today they were just making her head hurt.

“I’m okay. Really.” She answered back after a moment of getting herself back under control. She could hear the Doctor’s disbelieving hum, but he walked away after a moment. Rose gripped the edges of the sink and closed her eyes. She hated deceiving him like this, and knew she was probably not really fooling him in the slightest. But it was just a headache, it would go away. She was certain of it. She didn’t need to be fussed over. This was one thing she could take care of on her own.

She finished her business and brushed her teeth. Her hair looked a right mess, but she just decided to brush it out and tie it back. It’s not like she didn’t like the shower in her flat, it had suited her just fine for the first nineteen years of her life, but it in no way compared to the amenities she had gotten used to on the TARDIS. But, she would never admit to such a thing to her mum. Jackie would just think that ship was just giving her airs and graces and she didn’t need anything from her old life any more now that the Doctor has stolen her away. That conversation would open a whole other can of worms that she didn’t want to focus on just now as Jackie already had her concerns about her travels with the Doctor.

Rose realised she was taking her time with her make-up. It wasn’t the fact that she was practically squinting at her reflection to see what she was doing through her headache. She was just overly anxious for some reason. That strange feeling that overcame her when the Doctor touched her bare skin, she couldn’t stop dwelling on it. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation, it sort of reminded her of that science demonstration where she touched the metal globe and her hair stood on end, but somehow deeper? It was almost like for a moment he was an extension of her. She was more acutely aware of his presence. And the way his voice sounded just then, it sounded more like it was coming from inside her head. That sharp spark felt like whatever was happening was brought to a very abrupt stop that caused a bit of feedback. She knew the Doctor was telepathic, but he rarely used those abilities with her, respecting her dislike of people meddling with her mind.

Rose shook her head. She was over analysing things, exactly like he did a lot of the time. Her mum was right: she was becoming a lot like him. But that wasn’t a bad thing, right? The Doctor had been showing her a different way of looking at things from the first moment he stumbled into her life and it was now an integral part of her personality, and she wouldn’t change that for the world.

She finished up quickly, knowing that if she took too much longer her mum would be pounding and bellowing at the door next saying she was bursting. Rose capped her mascara, gave herself one more look over in the mirror and opened the door back into the hallway.

The smell of tea and toast hit her, and her stomach growled. How long had it been since she’d eaten? They had all skipped dinner the previous night as they were all too exhausted. She made a quick trip back to her bedroom to get dressed, throwing on an old comfortable pair of jeans and donning a pink hoodie over a plain white t-shirt. Rose stood as tall as she could in spite of the pounding in her head. She could hear her mum’s voice emanating from the kitchen, badgering the Doctor for details about his relationship with her.

“Tell me honestly though, Doctor: do you love her?” Rose’s heart almost skipped a beat when she heard her mum’s rather direct question. She stopped walking towards the kitchen, more in shock than a desire to remain hidden for the moment. She heard the distinct sound of trainers squeaking against the linoleum floor and knew the Doctor was shuffling his feet uncomfortably and he was either tugging at his earlobe or rubbing the back of his neck and flushing adorably. Silence stretched on for what seemed like forever. Then Jackie’s voice got slightly harder, “Well, do you?”

This time the Doctor answered, his voice serious.

“Jackie, my feelings for Rose…” he sighed heavily, “I don’t think they can be described fully in your language. I find her so absolutely extraordinary and she’s lit up my life in ways I don’t think I could ever properly repay her for. She saved me from myself and has become such an important part of my life. No. No, she is the most important factor in my life. You can label that with whatever words you wish and it wouldn’t scratch the surface of what she means to me. If I ever lost her…” he trailed off again and the kitchen was silent again. Her mother spoke up again, her voice thick with emotion.

“Are you ever going to tell her?”

“She knows.” He said simply. Rose smiled to herself because it was true. She did know. He didn’t need to use words to convey how he felt. He always showed her by his actions what was in his hearts. Also the way he had kissed her the night before left little room for doubt. She had been kissed by men before who didn’t really love her and they always just chased after their own pleasure instead of being attentive to her feelings. The difference was like night and day. Besides, he had already proven just how devoted to her he was in the past. It also wasn’t like he was even trying to hide it from anyone. He even had a bloody Dalek call him out on it once!

“So you promise that you’ll never do anything to hurt her?” Her mother’s voice dropped Rose out of her musings. This time the Doctor responded without hesitation.

“Never. You have my absolute word on that.”

“That’s good enough for me, then.” Rose could hear the smile in her voice. “I’ll just have your head on a silver platter if she gets up the duff without you first making an honest woman out of her.”

Rose felt her face heat up at that comment. Was it even possible for him to get her pregnant? She found her mind wandering back to some of the conversations she used to have with Jack and the possibility that he had potentially hundreds of children with different species. Would that be possible with them? The Doctor certainly looked human enough, did that extend to his ability to _dance_?

These were all things she also shoved to a far corner of her mind as these were subjects she didn’t want to tackle around her mother and before she’d even had her morning cuppa. Besides, she didn’t want to take things too quickly with the Doctor, being content to let their relationship to evolve naturally. She was quite happy with recent developments and didn’t want it to recede back into them just being friends.

She gathered her wits once more and stepped into the kitchen. As she had suspected, the tips of the Doctor’s ears were still a bit more red than usual and his hair was sticking up in all sorts of peculiar angles, but she made herself act like she didn’t hear the last part of the conversation.

“There you are, sweetheart.” Jackie beamed at her as she handed her a mug full of hot steaming tea. “You feelin’ alright? You look a bit peaky.”

Rose resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she took a long sip of her tea. Why couldn’t people just stop fussing over her? She also feel the Doctor’s concerned eyes on her.

“I’m fine. Just woke up with a headache. I’m already dealing with it.” She gave a tight lipped smile, hoping they’d just drop the subject. She saw the Doctor nod slightly in her periphery, but the expression on his face told her he wasn’t totally convinced.

“Anyway, Jackie, now that Rose is up and about I think it’s time for us to get going. Whaddya say, Rose Tyler? Back to the open road?” The Doctor sounded as exuberant as ever, and she found herself laughing when he hip-checked her even though it caused her to spill her tea a little. Thankfully it missed her crisp white t-shirt.

“Sounds good to me!” She beamed up at him, and her knees felt slightly wobbly when she saw his eyes dart down to her mouth for a split second. Was that why he wanted to get going? Cheeky git.

“But Rose hasn’t even had anything to eat yet.” Jackie protested, being the slightly smothering mother she loved so much. Despite the rumbling in her stomach, the Doctor’s insatiable and really contagious wanderlust was winning out.

“We’ll stop by for dinner soon, I promise. We should really go before he starts dismantling the toaster again.”

“I was improving it!” The Doctor protested, completely glossing over the fact that Rose was making plans for him to attend a proper sit-down family dinner.

“I was scrapin’ toast off the ceilin for weeks before I could replace it.” Jackie was trying to sound indignant, but she found herself laughing at the situation. Rose elbowed the Doctor in the ribs when he started eyeing the new toaster with interest, probably planning on how he could make it more sonic or whatever. He shot her a wounded expression that quickly dissolved when she shot him her signature tongue touched grin and he smirked at her.

“I guess there’s no point in arguing with you two when you got your minds made up. Fine, go and save Jupiter or Venus or something, just keep each other safe.” Jackie stepped up to them and pulled them into a group hug. Rose felt that strange sensation from earlier return when the Doctor wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close, but it felt more muted this time. That was until they all pulled out of the hug and took his hand in hers and it returned full force. It felt the strongest where their hands were joined and travelled up her arm to the top of her head. She heard the Doctor’s voice booming inside her head again as he said farewell to Jackie. Part of her brain registered that she should at least smile and wave to her mum. She was never sure if she actually did as this feeling was starting to overwhelm her senses.

Her headache seemed to recede just a little, but it still felt like a part of her head was trying to pull away from her. It was the most peculiar sensation, and nothing like she’d ever felt before.

She hardly even realised that the Doctor had pulled her out of the flat and they had descended down the stairs and they were already striding towards the TARDIS as she was so intent on trying to identify this feeling she was experiencing. The Doctor had been mercifully quiet, but she could still feel his concern for her coming off of him in waves. She hissed in a breath when she felt that shock again and her headache returned full force when he dropped her hand to fish the TARDIS key from his pocket. The world was suddenly spinning and she felt the Doctor catch her before she fell onto the hard concrete.

He hauled her in through the police box doors, and she was suddenly bombarded by some of the loudest sounds she’d ever heard in her life. It was like music, and she was almost certain she’d heard it somewhere before. It was just on the edge of her memory, but when she went to investigate them it was like a steel wall was preventing her from seeing them.

She whimpered in pain, and she found herself sitting somewhere soft. She felt the TARDIS take flight and she swore the engines never sounded so loud. She felt a wave of confusion envelop her, and she was certain the emotion wasn’t coming from her.

“What are you taking off on your own for?!?” Suddenly it felt like ice picks were being jammed into her skull as the Doctor’s voice blaring into her mind. Rose wasn’t sure, but she may have screamed. She felt something brush gently against her temples and that odd feeling took over her again. “Sorry, Rose. I’m so sorry, but I need to take look.” His voice was once again bouncing around her skull.

“What’s happening to me? My head feels like it’s splitting in two!” She wasn’t even sure if she was actually speaking at this point or not, but if he was trying to reach her telepathically she was sure he could hear her.

“I don’t know. You just collapsed when you walked into the TARDIS.”

“Everything is so loud. Your voice is echoing through my mind.” She suddenly felt his presence surrounding her, as if he was pulling her into one of his tight hugs, but she could still feel his fingers pressing against her temples. She clutched at his presence holding onto it for dear life.

“Just keep focusing on me, Rose. Everything will be alright.”

“I’m so scared.” She blurted, realising she had never felt so terrified in her life. Rose then felt more feelings overcome her that weren’t hers: confusion, frustration, fear but most of all love and an intense desire to protect her. A soothing touch was brushed over her consciousness, and gradually all the noise started to fade away along with a good portion of the pain as if the Doctor had found her brain’s volume controls.

“That better?” Rose realised that the Doctor was only speaking in her mind. She had always loved his voice but it seemed to carry a different cadence when spoken within her mind. It was almost like many voices were speaking at once, but it was still definitely his voice. But she could swear she heard his former Northern burr for just a moment.

“Yes.” She idly wondered if she could project her feelings to him while they were connected like this. She didn’t just say the words ‘thank you’, she focused on the emotions behind the words, and willed him to understand. Rose felt genuine shock and surprise from him.

“You shouldn’t be able to do that.” His voice was filled with awe and just a hint of fear. “You’re not telepathic. You should only be able to transmit words.”

Rose felt the Doctor pulling out of their connection, but she wasn’t ready for him to leave just yet.

“I’m still going to be right here.” He promised, and she felt the mental equivalent of a kiss. Still, she couldn’t stop a part of her consciousness from surging towards his. It was like an instinct. The Doctor seemed to feel it coming and quickly broke their connection.

She sat there for a moment, ever fearful that the pain in her head would reappear in full force. But it didn’t. The Doctor must have done something to suppress it for now. She slowly blinked her eyes open and saw the Doctor staring back at her, open concern on his face.

“What just happened?” She asked, hoping that this time he’d have an answer. He shook his head.

“I don’t know. I thought sensed something odd back at the flat that’s why I had to get you away from Jackie. She’s already worried to death about you, and I don’t want to shove another concern on top before we know what’s happening. And I do have a theory,” He glanced at the TARDIS’ central column with a disapproving glare, and the TARDIS burbled indignantly back at him. “All we need to do is…” His voice trailed off again as he started to turn back towards her but stopped half way. “What?” He blurted.

Rose slowly turned her head towards where the Doctor was staring and was startled to see someone else standing inside the TARDIS. It was a red-headed woman standing with her back to them, and she was wearing a wedding dress. The bride spun around and gasped.

“What?” The Doctor sounded completely bewildered and Rose couldn’t blame him as she was stunned speechless herself.

“Who are you?” The bride asked.

“But…” The Doctor sputtered.

“Where am I?” The bride asked a little sharper this time.

“What?” The Doctor still couldn’t grasp what was happening.

“What the hell is this place?” The bride bellowed. The Doctor could only reply with a single word.

“ _What?_ ”


	2. The Runaway Bride (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can have chapter 2 straight away as a treat!
> 
> This was originally chapters 2 and 3 but I decided it flows much better as one longer chapter. As if these chapters weren't massive enough. They're far longer than most of my other writing!

Donna Noble had been dreaming of this day ever since she was a little girl, and she could hardly believe it was happening now. She had finally met the man of her dreams six months ago and now she was finally about to marry him. The only regret she had was that her grandfather couldn’t attend her wedding. He just had to contract Spanish flu and therefore had to stay in bed. She had been willing to delay the wedding until he got better but he insisted she went ahead with it. Her Gramps was the only person on the planet she wouldn’t argue with, even though it did break her heart that he couldn’t attend. She would make absolutely sure that she got all the photos and video she could to show him later. Her Gramps meant the world to her and she wanted to make sure he would be able to experience her glorious wedding day one way or another.

The church looked absolutely spectacular, decorated to her exacting standards. She stood in the anteroom, an excited bundle of energy. This was it! In just a few minutes she was going to be Mrs. Donna Bennett! Her father stood by her side and took her arm gently, ready to escort her down the aisle. Donna huffed when she realised he was holding it completely wrong. She should be holding his arm, not the other way around! He muttered an apology as she corrected his grip.

That’s better. No more mishaps, thank you very much!

The band began to play the traditional wedding march and Donna stepped out into the aisle, her heart a flutter. She ignored Nerys’ sneer, idly wondering why she invited that cow in the first place. No matter. As long as she behaved herself she could forgive her presence. Maybe. Donna focused instead on Lance, her husband-to-be. He grinned widely at her, his pearly white teeth contrasting sharply with his dark ebony skin. Gorgeous he was!

Everything was perfect. Donna couldn’t remember time when she was this happy.

Then everything started going wrong.

Everyone suddenly started to gasp, and Donna’s vision was going all strange. Her body started to feel tingly all over as a bright golden light enveloped her. She started to panic. What was this? Was she drugged or something? She started to scream. The light blinded her for a moment until it faded away. Suddenly she found herself somewhere else completely.

Donna found herself staring at a set of wooden doors with a strange sign hanging above them illuminated by a few dim light bulbs. The lettering was backwards, but all her years spent working as a secretary had honed her skills at reading things from all angles she found them to read: “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX”.

The police! That’s who she should call! But for once in her life she didn’t have her mobile on her. No brides carry a mobile phone on them on their wedding day. They had no where to put it for a start.

Donna then sharpened her focus and started to take in the details of her surroundings. She noticed there was definitely something weird about the room she found herself in. A strange smell hit her nose that she couldn’t identify. It smelled sort of metallic and sort of something else and she decided right then and there she didn’t really want to know. The walls surrounding the doors were made of a material she couldn’t identify, and they had these strange roundels that looked like someone had installed headlights at regular intervals. Towering columns that looked like they were sculpted by a very drunk artist bracketed the walls, that she now realised were curved strangely inward.

She felt a prickling on the back of her head, and she knew she was being watched. She swung around, hoping and praying she could defend herself from whomever was standing there. A tall thin man in a rumpled brown pinstripe suit matched with battered white trainers stood there staring at her with an utterly confused look on his face. Donna reckoned she could take him in a fight. The bloke was so skinny it looked like a good stiff wind could blow him right over!

Beyond that stick figure of a man, a young blonde woman who looked a bit worse for wear sat on what appeared to be an extremely battered yellow sofa held together by duct tape. Donna also couldn’t begin to describe the strange glowing column in standing in between them.

Donna stared the man down, demanding to know who he was and where the hell she found herself. But the only word he seemed to know was: “What?”

Blimey, he seemed a bit thick. Or perhaps he was doing a good impersonation of being dim to put her on the back foot. Donna raised her hackles even more.

The young blonde stood up, seeming to be a bit unsteady on her feet. Oh no. Did this man do something to her too? Was she also drugged and brought here against her will? The girl raised her hands in a placating manner and stepped closer and closer to Donna.

“It’s okay, you’re safe.” She soothed.

Stockholm Syndrome. It must’ve been. Who in their right mind would want to stay in this crazy place by choice? Still, there was something in this girl’s eyes. A guilelessness that a part of Donna thought perhaps may be genuine. Maybe she was just as crazy as Mr. Skinny over there.

“My name’s Rose and this is the Doctor. We’re not going to hurt you.” The girl—Rose—was keeping her voice even and calm. Even this Doctor… whatever his surname was (she didn’t care to stay long enough to find out) seemed to relax marginally.

“Why the hell did you kidnap me then?” Donna snapped. Rose took a small step backward.

“What would we do that for?” The Doctor finally found more words in his vocabulary.

“Yeah, you just sort of appeared.” Rose supplied.

Great, they were both loonies. ‘Just sort of appeared’? Yeah right. People didn’t really have those beamy-uppy things like on _Star Trek_. Then it dawned on Donna what was really going on.

“Nerys! Oh my god! She’s finally getting me back! This has Nerys written all over it!” The Doctor and Rose exchanged confused looks.

“Who the hell’s Nerys?” He raised an eyebrow at her. Rose elbowed him in the ribs causing him to pout at her.

“Sorry, we don’t know who that is.” Rose insisted. Donna could see the sincerity in her eyes and felt a bit bad for snapping at her. Just a little. They did just kidnap her after all.

“Well, then can you please tell me where I am?”

“Inside the TARDIS.” The Doctor spoke up again, as if what he was saying made any sort of sense.

“The what?” Maybe she just misheard him, but the possibility of that was pretty low. Amazing at dictation she was.

“The TARDIS.” He said again, placing emphasis on that last word she still wasn’t making out of for some reason. Now Donna was getting irritated again.

“The _what_?!?” Oh, lovely. Now she was starting to sound like him! Wasn’t that wizard?

“The _TARDIS!_ ” He snapped back, as if that was a completely normal thing to say.

“That’s not even a proper word! You’re just saying things!” Donna shouted. Then the Doctor gave her a really scrutinising look.

“Hold on, wait a minute. What are you dressed like that for?” He asked. Even Rose rolled her eyes at him and shot him a look that just screamed: “Really?” He still looked absolutely clueless.

“I’m going ten pin bowling.” Donna dead-panned. The Doctor just blinked, but Rose smirked slightly. “What do you think, dumbo? I was halfway up the aisle! I was waiting my whole life for this. I was just seconds away, and then you, I don’t know, you drugged me or something!”

“We haven’t done anything!” The Doctor insisted. Rose nodded her head emphatically.

“I’m having the police on you! Me and my husband, as soon as he is my husband, we’re going to sue the living backsides off you both!” Donna screamed.

She then remembered the doors behind her. If these two didn’t kidnap her as they insisted they hadn’t, then she should be free to leave. This must have been an incredibly elaborate prank set up by Nerys. She did have to hand it to her, those were some amazing special effects. Still, Donna was going to absolutely kill her for this! Pulling this kind of stunt on her wedding day? Hiring these morons to feign ignorance? This was beyond infuriating!

She bolted towards the doors, completely ignoring the shouts of protest coming from behind her. She threw them open and…

No way!

Her jaw dropped at the sight in front of her. This was clearly no prank. The stress of planning this wedding must’ve been getting to her! She had finally snapped! That was the only explanation to what she was seeing now.

“The TARDIS is our ship.” Rose appeared at her shoulder, speaking calmly. “Our, uh, spaceship. And we’re in outer space.”

Donna just stared at the stars outside and couldn’t help but be hit by an overwhelming sense of awe. This was impossible. Simply impossible! No way this was special effects. Nerys certainly wasn’t that rich.

She was in outer space! The thought made her slightly giddy.

All those rumours that were flying around that she never fully believed in, were they actually true? She felt bad for doubting them as even her dear old Gramps believed in them, even going so far to search for evidence with his telescope every chance he got.

“You’re aliens.” She gasped.

“Yeah.” The Doctor drawled, then quickly added, “I mean, I am, from your perspective I suppose. Rose is human.” Donna could see the two of them out of the corner of her eye. He had his arm wrapped around Rose’s shoulders, and she had a small smile on her face as she leaned into him.

Good god, was she his girlfriend? What the hell did she see in him? There was no meat on his bones! Did he even have bones if he was an alien? Wait, why was she focusing on that? There was a much better question she had to ask.

“How are we breathing?” She asked.

“The TARDIS is protecting us,” The Doctor replied simply.

As truly captivating as the sight in front of her was, Donna just wanted to get back on track. So maybe this was just an accidental abduction? These two didn’t seem to be the brightest crayons in the box, so that was the most likely scenario out of all the insane ones she’d already dismissed. Perhaps she could get them to stop gawking outside and take her back to the church and she could forget about this and just get on with her wedding.

“It’s freezin’ with these doors open.” She muttered and was forced to take a step back as the Doctor surged forward and slammed the doors shut and all but ran to that strange column in the middle of the room, he was already rambling a mile a minute.

“I don’t understand how you got here, and I understand everything. This… this can’t happen! There is no way a human being can lock itself onto the TARDIS and transport itself inside. It must be…” He produced one of those thing doctors used to look into your eyes and down your throat, and was suddenly standing incredibly close to her and shining that damn thing in her eyes. And he was still talking!

“Impossible. Some sort of subatomic connection? Something in the temporal field? Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the Chonon shell. Maybe something macro mining your DNA within the interior matrix. Maybe a genetic…”

_THWACK!_

Donna slapped him hard across the face. The Doctor stumbled backward, Rose awkwardly catching him. He held his cheek and gave her that completely bewildered look again. Donna had quite enough of his technobabble. The git even sounded a bit excited, like this was fun for him!

“What was that for?” He whined. God was he really that thick?

“Get me to the church!” Donna bellowed at him. The Doctor straightened, and went to work pressing buttons that surrounded the strange column.

“Right! Fine! We didn’t want you here anyway! Where is this wedding?” He shot back.

“Saint Mary’s, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, the Solar System!” Well if that wasn’t enough information for him to go on by, then she would be really annoyed. The strange column started chugging up and down, creating the most ungodly noise. It was like metal scraping across metal, but somehow even more horrible! There was a thud and the whole room shook. Donna just barely kept her footing. She stomped out the front doors and found herself surrounded by tall buildings. There wasn’t a church in sight! This was definitely not Chiswick!

“I said Saint Mary’s. What sort of Martian are you? Where’s this?” She spun around exasperated to address this insane alien. She was bracing herself to come face-to-face with a flying saucer or something. Instead, there was just a battered blue box that was far too small to contain the room she walked out of. But she could still see the room inside! She walked around it, and as the perspective changed she could only come to one conclusion: It was bigger on the inside!

Donna was vaguely aware of the Doctor still babbling on. Talking about how his ship may be re-calibrating because it was digesting something. He was cooing at it like it was alive, then jumped back inside. Then he started bombarding her with questions, asking her if she’d had any kind of alien contact, or touched something strange. He even suggested that Lance might be an alien! Made the accusation that he was fat and maybe had a zipper on his forehead!

But Donna was done. This wasn’t Chiswick, but she was definitely on Earth. She’d find her own way back to her wedding. She turned on her heel and started to walk away. Hopefully she could forget about this insane experience and just get on with her life with Lance.

* * *

The Doctor was startled out of his ramblings by Rose tapping his shoulder and pointing towards the doors.

“She’s leaving!” She cried. The Doctor started after Donna, but stopped and turned back towards Rose. He could still see the stress lines around her eyes, and she was still quite pale. His hearts constricted in his chest as he realised Rose was still hurting.

“Maybe you should stay here. Get some rest. I can handle Donna on my own.” He suggested. Rose shook her head.

“And let you have all the fun? No chance.” She laughed. He loved the sound of it, wanted to hear it every day. But what was happening right now was no laughing matter.

“Rose.” He said, a bit firmer. It absolutely killed him to leave her on her own, but she really looked like she could use the rest. She shot him her most stubborn stare. One that she had definitely inherited from Jackie.

“Doctor, you’ve fixed my head…”

“For now!” He interrupted still holding his ground. He stepped up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “What I’ve done is only a temporary fix. I’ve no idea how long it’s going to hold. Now please.” He gently brushed his knuckles over her cheek. She reached up and took his hand in hers.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to leave me behind.” Rose shook her head at him. The Doctor looked down, shamefaced. Leave it to her to point out all the flaws in his logic.

“Yeah, but…” he started lamely.

“‘But’ nothing, Doctor. We’re just getting Donna back to her wedding. Just how dangerous can that get?” He looked back up and raised his eyebrow at her. She huffed: “Okay, fair point. But I’m still coming with you.”

The Doctor sighed. He knew Rose would be safer in the TARDIS, he just wanted to protect her. He had no clue what had just happened to Rose, why she suddenly seemed to have telepathic abilities. He had his theories, of course, but none of them made much sense. And if his theories were correct, then the repercussions were…

He shook his head. There was no point in arguing with a Tyler woman when she’d already made her mind up. She was strong and could handle herself. She’d proven that time and time again. It still didn’t stop him from worrying about her. He blew out a breath, hoping things would all work out.

“Fine, just stay close to me.” Pulling Rose by the hand, they started running towards Donna. She hadn’t made it that far as it seemed the shoes she was wearing made it slightly difficult to walk. He never understood the ‘pain is beauty’ mentality. People seemed to be more beautiful to him when they were comfortable. The Doctor called out to her and Donna turned slightly.

“Leave me alone. I just want to get married.” Donna grumbled.

“Please, come back to the TARDIS.” Rose stepped in front of her blocking her path.

“No way, that box is too weird.” Donna shuddered as she walked around Rose.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought at first too. But it really is wonderful, if just a bit impossible. It just takes a bit of getting used to.” The Doctor’s hearts swelled when he saw Rose’s smile as she described their home.

“’Impossible’ is one word for it.” Donna huffed. Then she checked her watch a worried look crossing her face. “Ten past three. I’m going to miss it.”

“You can phone them. Tell them where you are.” The Doctor suggested. Donna stopped dead and stared at him like he had two heads just like his Godmother.

“How do I do that?” The Doctor blinked. Did they accidentally land in a time before mobile phones? He reached out with his time senses. No, they were in the early part of the twenty-first century. She’d have heard of them and should have one. Humans seemed to be obsessed with them at this point. It was a convenient little novelty. They got a lot more obsessed when they invented smartphones, but still the mobile phone was becoming an absolute necessity for them.

“Haven’t you got a mobile?” He asked. Maybe Donna was just one of those humans who didn’t carry one yet? She snapped at him again.

“I’m in my wedding dress. It doesn’t have pockets. Who has pockets? Have you ever seen a bride with pockets? When I went to my fitting at Chez Allison, the one thing I forgot to say is ‘ _give me pockets’_!” Ah, the lack of pockets. This was something many of his female companions complained to him about in the past. Sarah Jane in particular. Always fighting for women’s rights, that one. The Doctor decided right then and there, if he were ever to regenerate into a woman he’d make absolutely sure the outfit he’d choose would have a plethora of pockets! Maybe even go so far as to develop an affinity for different kinds of bags? There was a very lovely bum bag hanging about in the wardrobe…

None of that really helped at the moment though. He turned to Rose, she seemed to always have her mobile with her. She shook her head and mouthed, “it’s in the TARDIS” at him. Great.

He decided to change tack. He needed as much information as possible.

“This man you’re marrying, what’s his name?” Donna got a starry eyed look on her face as she continued walking towards what looked to be a high street.

“Lance.” She sighed happily.

“Good luck, Lance.” He muttered to himself. Unfortunately, it was just loud enough for Donna to hear. She wheeled on him again poking him hard in the middle of his chest.

“Oi! No stupid Martian and his human girlfriend are going to stop me from getting married. To hell with you both!” Donna screeched before she started running for the high street. The Doctor just stood there for a moment. Calling Rose his girlfriend he could handle, even though that wasn’t the term he would use. Why did humans had to label each other’s relationships like that he would never understand. Still, he muttered the thing that insulted him the most:

“I’m, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not from Mars…”

The Doctor pulled Rose by the hand behind him as they ran for the high street after Donna, quickly catching up with her. She was trying to hail a taxi, and failing. Almost all the taxi’s that passed her had their lights on, signalling they were for hire. But they all completely ignored the flailing redhead. Rose dropped the Doctor’s hand so she could step in and begin to help Donna flag down a car, but to no avail. Every single car ignored them.

The Doctor sniffed. He knew how taxis worked. People all over the cosmos used a version of them. It was hardly ever this difficult to hire a ride. Wasn’t this their livelihoods? Couldn’t someone take Donna off their hands so he could focus on what was wrong with Rose instead?

“Do you have this effect on everyone? Why aren’t they stopping?” He didn’t care if his voice was coming off as a tad whiny. Donna shot him a withering look, then gestured towards the cars passing by.

“They think I’m in fancy dress.” She huffed. Sure, her dress was fancy, and he had to admit quite beautiful in it’s own way. She looked like a stereotypical bride dressed in crisp white. It still didn’t explain why no one was stopping. A taxi slowed down slightly, and the Doctor was hoping he’d stop and pick this woman up. Instead the driver leaned out the window and called out to Donna.

“Stay off the sauce darling!”

“They think I’m drunk.” Donna sighed. Another car occupied by a couple of lads also stuck their heads out and yelled at her.

“You’re fooling no one, mate!” Donna’s face fell even more.

“They think I’m in drag!” Rose wrapped an arm around the red-head’s shoulders. That was his Rose, always looking out for the feelings of others. Donna even shot her a small smile. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all, and it was just the stress of the day that was getting to her. Still, the Doctor narrowed his eyes at those lads. Donna was female as far as he could tell, but he didn’t think that mattered at all. He believed humans still had a long way to go when it came to coming to terms with things like gender roles. It was such an archaic concept in his eyes. Fed up with the idiocy of the human race (as a whole, he still loved a handful of them), he shoved his thumb and forefinger into his mouth and let out a shrill whistle. That ought to get a cabbie’s attention!

Both women jumped at the sound, and Rose even covered her ears. Oh, her head! He inwardly kicked himself. Her mind was in an incredibly fragile state! Who knows what could trigger another episode. Stupid, stupid Doctor!

But his whistle still had the desired effect. A taxi immediately stopped in front of them and Donna wasted no time in climbing in. The Doctor decided it was probably best to make sure she got to where she needed to be. After all, there could be cake! Plus she seemed to be another trouble magnet, he still hadn’t quite worked out how she got into the TARDIS in the first place. It would drive him barmy until he had worked that out. He hated not knowing things. He crawled in beside Donna, and got squished in the middle as Rose sat down beside him. He lifted his arm to give her more room and smiled gently at her as she snuggled into his side.

“Sorry ‘bout that. I didn’t think.” He whispered to her.

“It’s alright, you did what you had to.” Rose patted his knee, and he was pleased when she just left it there.

Donna hurriedly gave her directions to the driver and added: “It’s an emergency. I’m getting married. Just hurry up!” The driver looked up at her through the rear-view mirror.

“You know it’ll cost you, sweetheart? Double rates today.”

The Doctor felt Donna deflate beside him.

“Oh, my God.” Then she turned towards him. “Have you got any money?” The Doctor felt Rose shrug beside him. She must have left her entire purse in the TARDIS. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably. Money. Another concept that somehow eluded him. He also couldn’t use the psychic paper as the cabbie had a “cash only” sign taped to the glass divider. Just his luck.

“Er, no. Haven’t you?” He asked. Rose cringed beside him and buried her face in her hands. Donna glared at him again and he feared she was going to smack him again.

“POCKETS!”

* * *

Rose wished Donna would stop shouting. The shrill frequency of Donna’s voice was grating on her senses and the pain was starting to return. The Doctor seemed to sense this, and his hand left her shoulder. He reached up and placed his long index and middle fingers gently against her temple, rubbing them in small circles. His presence became more clear in her mind, and Rose knew he was again reaching out to her telepathically. She settled her head on his shoulder and allowed him entry into her mind. Donna’s voice was still as shrill as ever, but he was keeping the pain at bay. It felt like she was being wrapped in a warm blanket and she allowed herself this moment of pure contentment. She reckoned she could get addicted to him entering her mind like this. It was the closest she’d ever felt to anyone. True, she did have a general aversion to people poking around in her mind, but the Doctor had earned her complete trust.

He was the only man she ever truly loved. Of that she as completely certain.

She heard him hiss in a breath through his teeth when she unknowingly projected those feelings towards him, and frowned when she felt the disbelief and awe radiating off of him.

“ _You really shouldn’t be able to do that.”_ His voice floated through her mind. Again it was the same multi-layered voice she’d heard before. She concentrated harder on it “ _Your mind wasn’t built to do that…”_ This time she definitely was able to pick out the voice he had before he regenerated. Oh, how she missed that voice. She never imagined she could hear it again. She felt him picking up on her curiosity.

“ _Yeah. I’m really gonna have to explain that later too…”_ His voice shifted slightly so his current Estuary accent shone through more prominently.

Once again, she felt her consciousness trying to move further towards his. It was an instinct she didn’t know how to control. And a part of her was screaming at her to follow that instinct. That this was something that was always meant to happen. But then, she felt as if a heavy curtain fell between their minds and he eased out of the contact. His fingers drifted through her hair over and over again, his short nails scratching slightly against her scalp. She shivered at the sensation. He had always been incredibly tactile, but it seemed to have increased tenfold since they decided that they were more than just friends. He never would have initiated this kind of contact in public before. Hugs and hand holding, sure. But now his touches now were just a bit more intimate. She realised she rather liked it. Rose bit her lip and tried to catch his eye, but he didn’t look her way. His finger brushed lightly over her temple and she once again heard his multi-layered voice in her head.

“ _I’m sorry, Rose. I promise I’ll work this out properly soon. And I’ll explain absolutely everything. Just, please, hang in there for now, love.”_

Rose blinked at him. He’d never used that kind of endearment with her before. She could see the flush creeping up his neck. Apparently he didn’t mean for her to hear that. She squeezed his knee gently, and he held her just that much tighter.

Rose was roused back into the world around her as Donna was just laying into the poor cabbie, completely oblivious to them. Rose idly wondered if perhaps Donna was somehow a relation to her. Donna was kind of reminding her of what her mum was sometimes like when she got angry; hurling out insults like it was nobody’s business. But the driver wasn’t even willing to wait until they got to the church where she could secure money from Donna’s fiancé and pay for the ride then. They were dropped off and they all climbed out, Donna slamming the door behind them.

“And that goes double for your mother!” She bellowed at the cabbie before he drove swiftly off. She kept ranting some more: “I’ll have him. I’ve got his number. I’ll have him. Talk about the Christmas spirit.”

Rose took a closer look at her surroundings. Fairy lights and tinsel seemed to be hung from every available surface. A mother and her young child passed them, the little girl skipping along happily, the tail of her bright red Santa hat bouncing behind her. Everyone seemed to be carrying shopping bags containing wrapped gifts.

“Is it Christmas?” The Doctor asked somewhat redundantly.

“Well, _duh_!” Donna rolled her eyes at him. “Maybe not on Mars, but here it’s Christmas Eve.” Then something caught Donna’s eye. “Phone box! We can reverse the charges!” She hiked up her skirt and started jogging towards it.

Realising this could be a moment of privacy, Rose squeezed the Doctor’s arm.

“Have you worked out why the TARDIS took off on her own?” She asked. A thoughtful look crossed the Doctor’s face and he shrugged.

“There must be something about Donna that attracted the TARDIS, drawing us to the same point in space. Although why we were both transported into deep space is a mystery to me, although my best guess is the time lines are all still settling themselves and I... I mean we were somehow meant to be out there near that dying sun.” Rose felt all the blood drain from her face as she suddenly recalled him saying something about a burning up a sun in her dream. Knowing the Doctor, he would never do something like that unless there were extreme circumstances. But there was no possible way she could actually see another time line, was there? Unless it was connected to what was happening to her? She shook those thoughts from her head, adding them to the growing list of things she needed to talk to the Doctor about once they were finished with Donna and refocused on what was currently happening around her.

“We’ve definitely travelled forward in time a bit too.” Rose pointed out and the Doctor nodded.

“Then we can’t leave her alone until we figure this out.” The Doctor sighed.

“Nope.”

Rose looked out at the crowd. It didn’t take her long to spot Donna’s white dress as she ran inside a red telephone box. She could tell Donna was having a bit of trouble with the phone and jogged after her.

“Try and get some money!” She called out over her shoulder and the Doctor shot her a lazy salute before he dashed away towards a bank. Rose never liked taking money like this, but at this point in time she figured it was their only way.

She caught up with Donna again. She stared at the phone in frustration.

“What’s the operator? I’ve not done this in years. What do you dial? 100?” Donna asked her. Rose nodded. She’d done that so many times during her old clubbing days, much to her mother’s dismay. She’d always make Rose pay for the calls one way or another.

Donna started dialling.

“How come you’re getting married on Christmas Eve?” Rose asked when it was clear Donna wasn’t having much luck connecting. She’d already hung up and dialled 100 twice. Donna shook her head.

“Can’t bear it. I hate Christmas. I’ve got a lovely honeymoon lined up in Morocco. Sunshine! It’s going to be amazing.” A small smile crossed her face, then her call connected with an answer phone.

Donna started babbling into the phone, saying she wasn’t sure exactly where she was, but she was definitely on Earth when Rose’s ears perked up to the sound of music. Somewhere close a brass band was playing “God Rest Ye Weary Gentleman”. It brought a shiver down her spine. She had heard that song last Christmas after Mickey had persuaded her to leave the newly regenerated and sickly Doctor behind to do some last minute shopping, and it was right before they were attacked by robot scavengers. She turned her head towards the source of the music, stepping away from the phone box. It took her about a minute to locate where the music was coming from. Then Rose saw the brass band and her blood grew cold. It was them again! Their metal Father Christmas masks were a dead giveaway. She stood there, frozen in their unblinking gaze.

The spell was broken when she heard the Doctor shouting after Donna. Rose spun around and saw her climbing into another cab. She waved a tenner that she somehow acquired in the air at them, shouting that she’ll see them both in court. As her cab sped away, Rose noticed that the driver was also wearing a metal Father Christmas mask. She then heard the whirr of the sonic, and was suddenly caught in a shower of money.

People started to dive at the money, excitedly grabbing as many notes as they could. The Doctor took advantage of his distraction and grabbed Rose by the hand and started to haul her back to the TARDIS.

* * *

“You let her get away!” The Doctor tutted at Rose as they barrelled through the TARDIS doors. He began his dance around the console, pressing buttons here and throwing levers there. His ire dissolved completely when he saw the apologetic look on her face. Donna was so high strung he figured it would be a monumental task keeping her in one place for long.

“It’s alright, she couldn’t have gotten far. Now, Rose, come here a minute.” She quickly joined him at the console. He kept manipulating the controls as he spoke. “Since we can’t very well materialise within a cab—well, we could. Maybe. But it would be an incredibly tricky manoeuvrer that I don’t think anyone tried before. I mean, I’m brilliant, but not that brilliant. I’ll have a go at it later. Anyway, for now I’m going to have to actually fly the TARDIS after her. Trouble is, she wasn’t really designed for this kind of flight.”

“But I’m willing to bet you modified her a bit.” Rose smirked at him, her tongue caught between her teeth. He smirked back.

“You know me so well, Rose Tyler. Now I’m going to get the TARDIS caught up with her cab, then I’m going to need you to hold her steady as I go get Donna. Think you can do it?” Rose stared at the console a moment. He had been slowly teaching her how to operate the TARDIS, but this would be the first time she’d be attempting something like this without his direct supervision. Rose nodded.

“Absolutely!” He adored the way she said it with such confidence and rewarded her with a quick peck on the lips. His hearts soared knowing he was free to do such things now.

“Attagirl!” He crowed as he grabbed the monitor and swing it around to face them. He watched Rose out of the corner of his eye as he concentrated on actually flying the TARDIS down the motorway. She had easily found the controls she needed and was already using them to keep them stable. Still, despite their best efforts, it was a bumpy ride.

“There!” The Doctor announced once he had the TARDIS flying alongside Donna’s cab. He then noticed the very convenient auto pilot button that the TARDIS very kindly created for him just now and didn’t hesitate to press it. (Bless his beautiful ship.) He flung the monitor towards Rose who barely caught it before it went too far and caught her eye.

“It’s up to you now! I have faith in you!” He shouted as he ran down the ramp and flung the doors open.

The Doctor was nearly knocked over when the TARDIS bounced against the tarmac, but Rose quickly steadied them again. Donna was already staring at him, her mouth agape.

“Open the door!” He called out, hoping she would hear him.

“Do what?” Donna called back.

“Open the door!” He repeated, trying to shout louder. She pounded her hands against the window.

“I can’t, it’s locked!” Of course. Robo-Santa wasn’t going to make this easy. Or so it thought. The Doctor awkwardly reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the sonic screwdriver, aiming it at the cab. Donna was then able to get the window open.

“Santa’s a robot.” Donna grumbled at him. He bit back a sarcastic reply.

“Donna, open the door!” He hoped she’d get the message this time. Couldn’t she see he was trying to rescue her?

“What for?” Was she serious?

“You’ve got to jump!” Okay, that idea did seem crazy now that he said it out loud. But he had every intention of catching her. Donna shook her head at him.

“I’m not blinking flip jumping. I’m supposed to be getting married!” The Doctor resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was just about to try and say something to encourage her to jump, but her cab started accelerating.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” If he wasn’t so intent on staying upright, the Doctor would be shoving his hands through his hair.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it!” He heard Rose yell from behind him. What did she mean, she’s got it? He barely knew what he was doing trying fly the TARDIS like this (not that he’d actually admit it out loud, of course), and he certainly never showed Rose how to! Still, the TARDIS sped up and he was shocked at how smooth the flight had become. He risked a look behind him and his jaw dropped when he saw Rose manipulating controls like she’d been flying the TARDIS her entire life.

It was simply impossible!

“There!” She announced, and the Doctor whipped back around and found they had once again caught up with Donna’s cab. He aimed his screwdriver at Robo-Santa, overriding it’s controls and ensuring it wouldn’t accelerate again. He hoped. Robots almost always found a way to adapt sooner or later.

“Listen to me, you’ve got to jump!” He shouted again at Donna.

“I’m not jumping on the motorway!” Still she was being stubborn. He nodded towards Robo-Santa.

“Whatever that thing is, it needs you. And whatever it needs you for, it’s not good! Now, come on!”

“I’m in my wedding dress!” She bellowed at him. Why did humans have to state the obvious like that? Especially at times like this. Perhaps if he just indulged her they could get on with things?

“Yes, you look lovely! Come on!”

Finally, Donna opened the door. The Doctor reached his arms out, getting ready to catch her. Her eyes met his. They were filled with absolute terror.

“I can’t do it!” She cried retreating further back into the cab. He swallowed. He knew he was asking a lot from her, but the situation was desperate.

“Trust me.” He said, his voice softer this time. Donna looked between him and the front of the cab, and he knew she was weighing her options: get killed by doing something insane on the motorway, or be killed by Robo-Santa?

“Is that what you say to her? Does Rose trust you?”

“With her life. And I trust her with mine any day.” The Doctor hoped that Donna would pick up on his sincerity. He suddenly found himself flat on his back after Donna finally launched herself out of the cab and landed on top of him. The wind had been completely knocked out of him, and he kicked out blindly to close the TARDIS doors. His ship ascended upwards, and the time rotor flared to life for a moment before he felt the tell-tale landing bump. He heard Donna gasp as she quickly climbed off of him before she ran further into the console room. The Doctor picked himself off the floor. He rolled his shoulders.

“Blimey, I’ll be feeling that later. But for now we should…” the words died on his tongue as he turned around. His blood ran cold when he saw Donna cradling a pale and lifeless Rose in her arms. The Doctor lunged forward and scooped Rose up in his arms, ignoring the fact that he’d pushed Donna completely out of the way.

"Rose. No. Please!" He pressed his fingers to the side of her neck and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a steady pulse and she was breathing softly. He held her close and rocked her in his arms, pressing kisses to her forehead willing her to wake up. After what felt like hours, but was probably only a few seconds, her eyes blinked open.

"The TARDIS." Rose whispered she reached up and cupped his cheek, a serene smile on her lips. "She showed me how."

The Doctor had no time to properly unpack what that sentence meant as the Cloister Bell began to chime and the console room began to fill with smoke. He gathered all his strength and got to his feet without dropping Rose, graciously accepting Donna's help.

"We have to get out of here." He said to Donna before making his way towards the doors again, nodding his thanks to her as she held them open for him.

  
  



	3. The Runaway Bride (Part 2)

The song faded as the TARDIS slowly retreated from Rose’s mind. She understood it all now. From this point on, she would fully be the Doctor’s counterpart. She could still hear the TARDIS humming in the edges her mind, as their connection was now fully solidified. The TARDIS chirruped at her, an apology for the massive headache she had earlier. Rose fully accepted the apology from her wonderful ship. Yes, the TARDIS was hers just as much at it was the Doctor's. If she had the energy, she would have patted the nearby column.

Was this how it was for the Doctor, being able to communicate fully with Her? It was wonderful!

A small part of her mind had already registered the fact that Donna had come to her aid and had lifted her part way off the floor. Then she felt another pair of arms, the ones she belonged in. She felt him kiss her forehead again and again, causing that same tingling sensation from before against her skin every time. She opened her eyes and saw that the Doctor’s expression was that of complete worry and terror. She touched his cheek and immediately all his turbulent emotions became clear in his mind. But she was still far too weak to try and calm them through this mysterious connection she now seemed to have with him. Instead she told him in words that the TARDIS had shown her what to do. The Doctor’s worry seemed to deepen but he no time to react to this revelation as the Cloister Bells began chiming. Seems she pushed those engines just a bit too hard. The Doctor’s modifications didn’t hold up as well as he thought they would. Poisonous smoke would be flooding the console room any second.

Blimey, no wonder the Doctor jumped from control to control like that if the TARDIS had been running a constant commentary on Her systems straight into his head all these years. Could take some getting used to. Plus the Doctor once told her that the TARDIS was designed to be piloted by six people at the same time. But at least now they could assist each other.

The Doctor lifted her up and carried her through the doors. She allowed him to do so, even though she felt her physical strength quickly returning; she was perfectly fine with any excuse to be in his arms.

* * *

Rose stirred in the Doctor’s arms as he carried her out of onto what he discovered to be a rooftop of an office building. He spotted the iconic domed roof of St. Paul’s nearby and knew immediately they were still in the middle of London. Why couldn’t they’ve just landed in Chiswick? He looked down at Rose who was somewhat groggily looking around at the city beyond. She had already done the impossible, and the TARDIS probably couldn’t go that far after they’d pushed the engines like that. He instantly forgave her, even though he still couldn’t figure out how she kept doing these impossible things.

Rose certainly loved to keep him on his toes. Question was: could Donna forgive her for still keeping her away from her wedding?

“I’m okay now, Doctor.” Rose said, patting him on the chest. Despite her assurances and the insistence to be put back on her feet, he held her even closer.

“You scared me.” He murmured into her hair.

“Yeah, but, you know the TARDIS wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. It was just a bit, I dunno, overwhelming. But it was really wonderful.” The Doctor’s eyes cut over to his ship. If She had been meddling with Rose’s mind again, well he’d have some very words strong with Her. There was a reason he removed the heart of the TARDIS from Rose: it was killing her! Her mind almost burned up! So what was the TARDIS playing at?

“Here.” Donna said softly as she stepped up to them, the Doctor turned and saw she had something in her arms; his long brown overcoat. “I saw this next to the door. Figured she could use it. It’s December after all. I think she needs to stay warm.” The Doctor smiled gently at her. Underneath her loud and prickly exterior, Donna certainly had a big heart. He glanced back down at Rose.

“Sure you can stand?” He asked. Rose just rolled her eyes at him in mock exasperation, before she smiled and nodded. Reluctantly, he set her on her feet, keeping his hand on the small of her back just in case she was still unsteady. Amazingly to him, she was perfectly steady on her feet. After an episode like that, he’d expect her to be a lot weaker than this. Probably still unconscious, or worse. No normal human being should’ve been able to recover this fast, if at all! Still, Rose had proven time and time again she wasn’t just a normal human.

Rose took the proffered coat from Donna and put it on. It was clearly too long for her, and it dragged on the ground, but seeing Rose in his clothes was starting to do funny things to his insides. His imagination also started to jump to places that he often tried very hard to avoid. Plus the sensory memories of every time they touched weren’t exactly helping his situation as his mind quickly started to fill in the gaps.

He shook his head and forced his eyes on the skyline around him. Now wasn’t the time to indulge in those thoughts, even if many of them seemed less and less like dreams and more like things he could someday do if their relationship kept on the track it had just started on.

‘Focus!’ He chided himself. He took a deep breath and turned his attention back to the two women standing nearby.

“Did we miss the wedding?” Rose gently asked Donna.

“Yeah.” Donna sighed looking dejectedly at her watch.

“Sorry.” Rose said. Donna shrugged.

“It’s not your fault.”

“Oh, that’s a change.” The Doctor chuckled ironically. Rose shook her head fondly at him.

“Ignore him. He’s a bit rude, and probably a bit jealous of your hair colour.” She laughed, completely ignoring the Doctor’s indignant outcry.

“What? Why?” Donna blinked.

“Long story.” Rose smiled up a the Doctor who just shook his head at her, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

“Still, I wish you had a time machine, then we could go back and get it right.” The Doctor bit down on his tongue so hard he almost drew blood to keep himself from quiet, and he could tell Rose was desperately holding back a severe case of the giggles.

“Yeah, yeah. But even if we did, we couldn’t go back on someone’s personal timeline.” Rose raised an eyebrow at him. Oh, right. He was running his mouth again before checking with his brain first. Usually he still said something brilliant, even if others couldn’t understand him. He loved playing the part of teacher. But Donna shouldn’t know that they were actually time travellers, he didn’t think the time stream would survive if she were allowed to travel in time! So he amended: “Apparently.”

Thankfully, Donna didn’t push the subject. She walked over to the edge of the roof facing St. Paul’s and sat down. The Doctor saw that she was shivering. It was the middle of December, as she so kindly pointed out, and humans would consider this temperature to be quite cold. Donna was also in a sleeveless dress that was much more suitable for a summer wedding. Not that he spent much time thinking about wedding dresses. It was just common sense. He decided to be chivalrous and shed his suit jacket and placed it around Donna’s shoulders before sitting down beside her. Donna tried to close it around herself, but she came up several inches short.

“God you’re skinny. This wouldn’t fit a rat.” Donna grumbled, then she looked over at Rose who was just settling herself beside the Doctor. “How do you not get paper cuts when you hug him?” Rose laughed out loud at that. The Doctor just shook his head at the two women. Leave it to Rose to make friends with everyone she met.

He looked out at the London skyline, and realised just how exposed they really were sitting on this rooftop. The Robo-Santas had already tracked Donna down once, it wouldn’t take them long to find her again. He suddenly remembered he stuck something in his pocket for this very situation. (Truth be told, he kept things in there for every situation he could think of. Donna was right, they were dead useful.) He rooted around his trouser pockets a moment until he found what he was looking for.

“Oh, and you better put this on.” Donna shook her head at the gold ring he held in his hand.

“Oh, do you have to rub it in? Besides, you should really be giving it to Rose. I’m sure she’s the only woman on this planet willing to marry you. If you’re not already.” Exclaimed Donna. He smartly kept his mouth shut at that. Rose didn’t realise just how many times they’d been married throughout the cosmos when they took place in rituals that she found intriguing. He never said anything before because he was so terrified of losing her and didn’t want her to storm off thinking he’d taken advantage of her. He liked to pretend he had forever with her.

Worry stabbed at his hearts again. If the Heart of the TARDIS had been re-awoken in Rose, how long would it take for her to burn up this time? Her mind had been in such a fragile state that morning and she was manifesting abilities she shouldn’t have. He couldn’t help but feel extremely unsettled and anxious about why she seemed so fine and normal now. Part of him felt terrible for wanting to just leave Donna where she was to deal with her own problems so he could just take care of Rose. Besides, he couldn’t even enter the TARDIS until She finished repairing Herself.

But things just had to be so damn complicated! Why couldn’t aliens just leave Earth alone for Christmas? Two years in a row? This was getting ridiculous. If this happened next year…

He took a cleansing breath in an attempt to get his hearts rate under control. He forced himself to believe Rose would be alright for just a bit longer.

“Those creatures can trace you. This is a bio-damper. Should keep you hidden.” He said once he focused his mind back to the task on hand. He gently took hold of Donna’s left hand and slipped the ring onto her finger, then added cheekily. “With this ring, I thee bio-damp.”

“Yeah, but you can kiss her instead, Spaceman.” Donna nodded pointedly toward Rose. Any train of thought that had been running though his mind was completely and utterly derailed when Rose grabbed him by the tie and planted a noisy—and quite frankly far too short for his liking—kiss to his lips. Donna cleared her throat.

“I didn’t mean now! I’d like to keep my breakfast down, ta!” She cried, looking at them with over exaggerated disgust. Then she shook herself and changed the subject back to what they were supposed to be talking about, “So come on then. Robot Santas, what are they for.”

The Doctor just sat there for a moment as he had to let his brain reboot.

“Ah, just your basic robo scavenger.” The Doctor waved a hand somewhat dismissively, and cleared his throat. He hoped that when he spoke again it would be less squeaky. He debated a moment if he should tell Donna the whole story about them, but then predicted that if he did she’d flip her lid. Knowing he was an alien was enough for now! “The father Christmas stuff is just a disguise. They’re trying to blend in. I met them last Christmas.”

“Why what happened then?” Donna asked. The Doctor blinked, finding himself awkwardly on the back foot. Again. Was she being serious?

“You’re tellin’ us you didn’t see that massive spaceship hovering over us? Right in the middle of London?” Rose sounded just as incredulous as the Doctor felt. To their further disbelief Donna just shrugged.

“I had a bit of a hangover.” The Doctor felt Rose laughing beside him. She then threaded her arm through his, their hands finding each other like magnets. He felt her mind approaching his once more and placed a barrier between them. Both their minds needed to stay clear for now. He just hoped that he could maintain his telepathic distance for the time being. But their connection was still deep enough that he could clearly sense her emotions. Rose seemed a tiny bit confused; perhaps she just briefly sensed his mind and was wondering if she just imagined it. Her mind was actively seeking his, whenever they touched, and that should not have been possible. But he could also feel a part of his mind calling out to her, an instinct he hadn’t felt in centuries. This time however it was far more intense because of his deeper feelings for Rose. He squeezed her hand and his hearts did a little flip when she gently brushed her thumb along the back of his.

“Well we had a great Christmas right after it was all sorted, didn’t we?” Rose said as she smiled up at him. His brain once again needed a moment to catch up to the current conversation he was having; and he just stopped himself from kissing her in front of Donna.

It was true that his former self would have completely balked at the idea of having Christmas dinner like the one he had. But when he regenerated and was taken care of by people who considered him to be an integral part of their family, well, he couldn’t deny it any longer. He loved Rose, and his feelings for Jackie had softened overtime. And Mickey, he only treated him like a pain in the arse just because he was always so frustrated that he wasn’t living up to his potential! To say he was proud of the man he had eventually become was an understatement, and he hoped even a universe away he knew that.

As much as the Doctor loved to reflect on these things, there was a much more serious matter to deal with, before he could actually deal with the one that was truly worrying him. He suddenly realised that he had been staring at Donna for a solid minute and she was beginning to look uncomfortable and quickly reorganised his thoughts.

“Somethin’ on my face?” She snapped at him.

“I was just wondering, what do camouflaged robot mercenaries want with you? And how did you get inside the TARDIS? I don’t know.” Then he suddenly got a brainwave, and he reached over and pulled the sonic out of his jacket pocket, ignoring Donna’s slightly embarrassed squeak. Why should she get so upset? It was his pocket. “What’s your job?”

“I’m a secretary.” Donna replied simply. He quickly adjusted the sonic’s settings and started scanning her.

“It’s weird. I mean, you’re not special, you’re not powerful, you’re not connected, your not clever, you’re not import--” He was cut off by Rose snatching the screwdriver out of his hand.

“You’re out doing yourself in the ‘rude department’ today!” Rose really sounded like an angry Jackie for a minute. He tried to grab the sonic back, but she held it out of his reach, even going so far to dangle it over the edge of the building with loose fingers. “Not until you apologize!” She spoke to him through gritted teeth.

“You two really are married, aren’t you?” Donna huffed. The Doctor could clearly see the angry flash in Rose’s eyes, and he mulled over the words he was just saying to Donna. What was he thinking nearly calling someone not important? If he had learned anything in his travels with Rose it was even the most ordinary person could be extraordinary under the right circumstances.

True, his frustration was nearly at the boiling point, but he couldn’t use that as an excuse for brushing off the importance of someone else. He took another deep breath.

“Sorry. That, that was really uncalled for.” Donna seemed to sense his sincerity and nodded. Rose slipped the sonic back into his hand, trapping it between their palms as she wrapped her fingers around his hand.

“It’s alright.” Donna fiddled with her hands in her lap. She suddenly seemed a bit shy. “You’re not the first person to say that kind of stuff to me. Nor the last, probably.”

The Doctor mentally kicked himself again. He should have seen it. Her anger towards the world, it must have been a coping mechanism for how scared she really was. Then Donna’s eyes just lit up. And when she started talking again, she just couldn’t stop.

“That was until I met Lance. I mean, he’s the head of HR! I was temping at this place called HC Clements. The whole place is a bit posh really, nothing like the double glazing firm I did a couple years at. That place was more than a bit naff. I didn’t think I was gonna fit in this place at all, but Lance was so sweet and he brought me a coffee every day! No one brings secretary’s a coffee! And as I said, he’s the head of HR! He don’t need to bother with me. But he was nice, he was funny.” Donna snorted out a laugh. “And as it turns out he thought everyone else was snotty too. That’s how it started, me and him. One cup of coffee. That was it.”

“When was this?” Rose asked. Donna smile grew even wider.

“Six months ago.” The Doctor had to admit that he wasn’t completely clear on every aspect of this human courting rituals (although, Rose was still sitting there holding his hand, so he must’ve been doing something right), but that didn’t sound totally correct to him.

“Isn’t that a bit quick to get married?” He asked. Donna shrugged.

“Well, he insisted.” The Doctor tried very, very hard to keep his face neutral. But in his mind’s eye he pictured a very different situation. Even though he had just met Donna, he was certain it was really the other way around. It seemed like she either really liked someone, or really hated them.

“And he nagged, and he nagged me and he just wore me down. And then finally, I just gave in.” Even Rose had to cough do disguise her disbelieving laugh.

“What does that place do, HC Clements?” The Doctor didn’t even try to disguise his proud smile over Rose’s question. Her asking all the right things at the right time was one of the biggest things he loved about her.

“Oh security systems. You know, entry codes, ID cards, that sort of thing. If you ask me, it’s a posh name for locksmiths.” Donna explained.

“Keys…” The Doctor couldn’t help but feel that was important somehow. He’d have to do some digging on this company. He’d bet his hat they had something to do with what was going on with Donna. Well, if he had a hat. Didn’t much care for them this go around. They’d only mess up his hair.

“Anyway, enough of my CV.” Donna sighed. “Come on, it’s time to face the consequences. Oh, this is going to be so shaming. You can do the explaining, Martian boy.” She shot the Doctor a teasing smile that he didn’t return. He got to his feet, and helped the ladies up.

“Yeah, I’m not from Mars.”

Donna ignored him.

“Oh I had this reception all planned. Everyone’s going to be heartbroken.”

* * *

They hailed another cab once they reached street level. The forty-five minute drive from central London to Chiswick was pretty uneventful, although Rose had to confiscate the sonic again when the Doctor tried to scan the driver just to make sure he was one hundred percent positive the cabbie wasn’t under the Robo-Santa’s influence.

“You sure he’s an adult. His kind don’t just hatch from an egg all full grown do they?” Donna quipped, looking over at Rose. Rose laughed at the Doctor’s scandalised face, imagining him as a little boy with oversized ears and wide blue eyes. It then occurred to her that she didn’t know what his past regenerations looked like, except for the one she knew and what she saw from a photo a photo Sarah Jane shared with her. It was back when the Doctor had wild curly brown hair and the longest scarf she’d ever seen in her life. She reckoned she would have loved that him just as much if Sarah Jane’s stories were anything to go by.

The Doctor never really spoke in detail about what his people were like. Especially not like what they were like as children. She remembered Jack once made a joke about how he may have come from something called a loom, but the Doctor shut that line of conversation down very quickly. She never got details other than he mumbled something about being considered a ‘High Born’. Whatever that meant.

And didn’t he once say he had been a father? He never did elaborate on that. Just when Rose thought she had the Doctor all figured out he’d drop just the tiniest detail that just drove her imagination insane.

The cab turned into the car park of a posh looking hotel. Rose spotted a sign with Donna and Lance’s name printed in fancy looking script with an arrow pointing the way towards the reception. The Doctor fumbled with the money he had acquired from the bank machine earlier, probably giving the cabbie enough money to pay for a nice vacation somewhere tropical and telling him to keep the change before they all piled out.

Rose could hear a booming baseline coming from somewhere inside the building. She looked around to see if there were any other signs leading to another reception, but didn’t get far in her search before she felt the increasingly familiar tingle running up her arm when the Doctor scooped her hand up and pulled her along after Donna.

Donna seemed to be on a warpath. She stomped her way through the lobby, following the sounds of Noddy belting out the first lines of _Merry Christmas Everybody_ when she suddenly stopped after passing through a set of double doors. The music stopped abruptly with a record scratch and all, and the Doctor and Rose jogged the rest of the way into the room after her. About seventy people dressed in formal attire had all turned to look at Donna, all with that wide eyed, deer caught in the headlights, look on their faces.

“You had the reception without me?” Donna shouted into the room. Rose felt Donna had every right to be angry at this situation. This was the lowest thing anyone could do to her. And this was her family?

“Donna, what happened to you?” Going off of Donna’s description, Rose assumed this handsome looking dark-skinned man was Lance. Donna’s fiancé, whom appeared to be dancing pretty close with a shifty looking blonde woman only moments before.

“You had the reception without me?” Rose could hear the wobble in Donna’s voice.

“Hello, I’m the Doctor and this is Rose.” She elbowed him hard in the ribs and mouthed ‘not the time’ at him when he pouted at her. No one else in the room seemed to care about his friendly sounding greeting anyway. Donna turned towards them.

“They had the reception without me.” She explained slowly, enunciating each word carefully. Poor Donna. She was so in shock she got stuck in a loop.

“Yes, I gathered.” The Doctor muttered under his breath as he rubbed at his eye with his free hand.

“Well it was all paid for. Why not?” The shifty looking blonde spoke up. Oh, Rose already had a distinct dislike for this woman. Why Donna would invite someone like that was beyond her.

“Thank you, Nerys.” Donna spat. Oh, so this was that cow Donna thought was messing with her earlier. And to think Donna thought her and the Doctor were in league with the likes of her; it made her skin crawl.

An older woman, who was dressed more formally than all the others pushed through the crowd of party goers. The mother of the bride perhaps? Maybe she should introduce her to her own mum so she could get a lesson on proper behaviour along with a few smacks upside the head.

“Well, what were we supposed to do? I got your silly little message in the end. ‘I’m on Earth’? Very funny. What the hell happened? How did you do it? I mean, what’s the trick because I’d like to know?” This line of questions led to even more questions. And soon it seemed like everyone was talking over each other, shouting to get Donna’s attention.

The Doctor took a defensive stance in front of Rose. Most likely thinking the noise was doing her head in again. Sure, it was loud, but she felt perfectly fine. Yes, she gave him a scare earlier and she was truly terrified herself, but that all passed thanks to the TARDIS. In fact, she felt better than she had in a long time, her mind feeling more focused and she had loads of energy despite skipping breakfast. She pushed on his arm to try and get him to back off. If she could stare a Dalek down it’s eyestalk, she could certainly deal with this irate crowd. She’d worked a couple Christmas Eves at Hennrick’s before and knew how to deal with a mob. But he didn’t budge. It was like his trainers were magnetized to the floor.

The voices grew louder and louder, and the crowd was slowly closing in on Donna.

Donna let out a loud sob that cracked Rose’s heart in two. She’d never seen anyone so mistreated by her family on what was supposed to be the happiest day of their life. The loud questions suddenly stopped, replaced by sounds of concern towards Donna. Lance stepped up to her and gathered her in a big hug as the crowd started to applaud. Donna manoeuvred them so only Rose and the Doctor could see her face clearly. She was still loudly sobbing, but there were no tears. She winked at them.

Rose’s jaw dropped at her absolute cheekiness, and she felt an overwhelming sense of amusement just radiating off the Doctor. For a moment, she felt like she could see into his mind. He was impressed by Donna, and how she could play a room like that. He felt that Jackie was one hundred times the mother this woman was. He felt…

She felt him stiffen beside her, and he dropped her hand. There was a tiny spark up her arm, but not as intense as it was this morning when she initially ran from him. She couldn’t feel him any more.

That’s when she knew it wasn’t her imagination. He didn’t purposefully initiate the connection like he did before to put a temporary stop to her headache. She had unconsciously reached out to him, and she had the distinct feeling this wasn’t the first time she’s done so. A connection to the TARDIS she could understand. But to him?

The Doctor looked down at her. She could tell he wanted to say something to her, but there were too many people around.

The music had started up again. Everyone, including Donna, were paring up and they were continuing to dance, making this the proper reception it was meant to be.

The Doctor nodded his head towards the door they came in by, turned and started walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. She could see the tense lines of his body and only began following him when the long tails of the overcoat she returned to him earlier disappeared around the corner. She found him standing outside, kicking at a piece of loose gravel with the toe of his shoe. His back was still to her, and he was being uncharacteristically quiet. Usually Rose would make some kind of a joke to lighten the mood, but she couldn’t come up with one.

“So, you flew the TARDIS today.” The Doctor’s voice was light and conversational. He turned part way towards her. She could only see his profile, but it was enough to see the guarded look in his eyes. His expression threw her off balance because it was so unlike the open expression she had begun to get used to.

“Yeah, She… She showed me how. I can’t explain it. Just one moment, I only knew what you had taught me. Then I… I understood it all!” Why did she feel all defensive all of a sudden? It wasn’t as if she’d ripped open the TARDIS console again and took the knowledge by force. She also perhaps thought he’d be proud of her for what she was able to accomplish.

“Did I ever tell you that I failed that part of my Academy training? That I only gained the rank of Time Lord by the skin of my teeth because of it?” He shook his head, “For someone like you to…”

“What? You jealous?” Rose snapped at him. The Doctor gaped at her looking like she just slapped him across the face. Then his eyes softened. He took a small step closer.

“It was the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Believe me, I’ve seen a lot and I do mean a lot. But… it’s also the most impossible thing.” He let out a breathy laugh. “I suppose I shouldn’t let that surprise me any more. You, Rose Tyler, eat impossible for breakfast. And that’s why I…” He clicked his mouth shut.

Rose could hear her pulse thundering in her ears. This wasn’t the first time he’d didn’t finish what sounded like a very important sentence. Silence fell over them for what felt like an eternity. His eyes had dropped back to the ground and he was again kicking at the gravel.

“I heard you talking to mum earlier.” His eyes snapped back up to hers and she swallowed down her sudden irrational nervousness. “About us. Sounded pretty poetic to me, and I don’t doubt you meant it. But I don’t believe for a second that your people don’t have a word for what you feel for me. Your explanation sure as hell sounded like the absolute definition of love to me. I just think you’re afraid to say it because of that god damn ‘Curse of the Time Lords’ bollocks you banged on about before! Why are you so afraid to tell me!?!” Her heart was hammering in her chest. She almost couldn’t believe she was shouting at him over this. What did it matter? She certainly did know how he felt. She couldn’t get their kiss from the night before out of her head. She wanted nothing more for it to happen again and it took all her self control not to grab his face and snog the living daylights out of him. He was the only person she wanted to share that kind of moment with ever again. Still, his unwillingness to say it was starting to drive her spare!

“ _Because I don’t deserve you!_ ” He screamed back. By the time his voice echoed off the nearby wall, his furious expression had crumbled. In that moment, Rose didn’t see him as the ancient being he was, but as a man who was so terribly ashamed of himself. She reached out a hand towards him, but he flinched away. “When your mind reached out towards mine… Rose you have no idea what that’s like. Your mind, it’s… it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve given up ever thinking I’d feel anything like that again since…” He grew silent again. Rose wrung her hands out in front of her.

“The Time War?” A muscle twitched in his jaw as he nodded.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “But it’s impossible for a human to forge those kinds of connections. Your minds simply aren’t wired up like that! It’s just a biological fact. The only reason you had any kind of link with the TARDIS before was because you looked into Her heart and you became the Bad Wolf. That power was too much for you, and you nearly died.”

“I remember.” Rose said softly. “It came back to me in bits and pieces, I’m not even sure I remember everything.” She felt a blush racing up her neck. “You kissed me then.” A hint of a smile crossed the Doctor’s face.

“How could I resist?”

“My mind isn’t burning now. I feel better than ever. And as impossible as what happened to me is… Doctor, I… I don’t want you to feel lonely any more.”

“I don’t feel lonely with you around. I’ve learned to live with the silence in my mind, because you’ve occupied my hearts. That’s what’s more important to me.”

“But you still don’t think you deserve to be loved?” Rose felt hot tears stinging at her eyes. “I love you, Doctor. So much. You’re not the monster you think you are. You did what you had to do for the greater good. It kills me to think about what you’ve lost. I just want to help you live again. You deserve all the love you can get. And I’ll keep giving it to you for as long as I’m able to.”

“Rose.” He breathed her name like a prayer, as he stepped up to her and cradled her face gently in his hands, “My Rose Tyler. Always my saviour, eh? I…” his voice wavered again but he shook his head sharply and carried on, “I… I love you. I’m sorry I’ve been such a coward about actually telling you. Some things need to be said.” He pressed his lips lightly to hers once. Twice. Then on the third pass he finally slotted his lips properly between hers, drawing her bottom lip into his mouth and lightly nipping at it. That ever familiar electric feeling radiated through Rose once more, and for the first time she could feel his raw, unfiltered feelings for her. The intensity of it made her gasp and her mouth opened slightly under his. The Doctor didn’t hesitate to use this opportunity to deepen the kiss. She shivered when the tip of his tongue skimmed lightly against her palate and felt his surge of pride that he could draw out such a reaction out of her. Rose felt part of her consciousness reaching out to him again, but he once again closed himself off slightly. He gentled the kiss slightly, giving her room to breathe now and then and allowed her the same liberties he just took. And oh yes, she took full advantage.

“Don’t think I don’t want this.” He spoke into her mind and she felt his mind caress hers in a way she hadn’t felt before and her knees buckled from the sheer pleasure of it. His hands tightened around her waist, keeping her anchored to him. “I just want to find out what’s causing you to be able to do this first.”

He reluctantly broke both their kiss and their psychic connection as gently as possible.

“As soon as we’re done figuring out this mystery with Donna, we’ll go back to the TARDIS. I want to run a couple tests just to make one hundred percent sure you’re alright. Then we can go from there.” Rose nodded in agreement.

“Deal.” She leaned up and pressed a light kiss to his jaw. They stood in each other’s arms in comfortable silence for a moment, the sounds of music and laughter drifting out through the door. “But first, I want one dance with you.” The Doctor looked uncomfortable again.

“I… I don’t think so.”

“What, you don’t have the moves any more?” She teased. He narrowed his eyes at her.

“I certainly do!”

“Then prove it!” She smiled up at him. He squared his shoulders, and sniffed haughtily.

“Fine. One dance.” Rose knew his complaining was all for show. She had the feeling he’d stand on his head if she asked him the right way, he wasn’t one to deny her anything. They walked hand in hand back into the ballroom. An upbeat pop song was playing, and Rose wasted no time in shimmying and bouncing to the beat. It wasn’t a song she was too familiar with, Donna’s taste in music seemed to be different than hers, so she didn’t realise the song was about to end. The lively beat was then replaced by a much slower love song. A genuine smile crossed the Doctor’s face as he tugged Rose into his arms. He held her close as they swayed together to the music.

The room was crowded, but Rose couldn’t help but feel they were the only two people there.

“We got a groovy kind of love.” He sang along with the lyrics, then wrinkled his nose. “Groovy? Eugh. Not saying _that_ again.” Rose laughed and rested her head in the crook of his neck. Despite his distaste for that one word in the song, he kept dancing.

“Our love isn’t _groovy_?” She overemphasized the word, and she felt his laughter rumbling through his chest. She sighed contentedly when he pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead.

“Nah. But it certainly is one of a kind. And I wouldn’t trade it for all the riches in the universe.”

“Do you always get so soppy at weddings, Doctor?” Rose giggled.

“Well, this isn’t technically a wedding. And even if it was… maybe. Just a little bit. Don’t tell anyone.” He stage whispered that last bit. Rose laughed again, and they continued swaying to the music.

The song inevitably ended, and another love song came on, possibly to give everyone else a breather from all the more energetic dances. She expected the Doctor to stop after one song and continue to try and figure out Donna’s mystery, but he just held her a bit tighter and kept dancing.

“You said one dance, not one song.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “Do be more specific next time.”

“Oh, I won’t”


	4. The Runaway Bride (Part 3)

The Doctor had always prided himself on the fact that he could have several trains of thought running at the same time. This latest incarnation however seemed to differ from the others in that regard. He often found himself fixating on just one thing at a time, sometimes getting severely distracted by them. He was eternally grateful he had Rose by his side. She was incredibly good at seeing tiny details that were in fact the key to solving the latest problem they were faced with.

Right now, he was having a difficult time trying to shove his worry for Rose and his need to know what exactly happened to her into the corner of his mind. He wanted to keep her in his line of sight for the time being, but still agreed—although very reluctantly—to go along with Rose’s plan of splitting up in order to gather more information about the mystery surrounding Donna. Surely someone in this room knew something. They would just have to use their wit and charm to find things out as that usually brought on good results.

The Doctor decided to try and do a little digging on the company Donna worked at, this HC Clements. Scouring the Internet might help. He loved the Internet, it was the best invention the human race had ever created (next to the microwave oven but that’s a topic all on its own). All their collective knowledge stored in one easily searchable place? Brilliant! But there wasn’t a computer in this room that he could see. He was just about to head over to the reception desk by the hotel’s entrance and commandeer their computer when he saw a man by the bar with a mobile phone in his hand. The Doctor smiled to himself. It was, by human standards, a cutting edge phone for it’s time as it was one of the very early smartphones. So they did have them by this time! It was still a flip phone since the iPhone was still evidentially a few months away from release, but it would do nicely! The bloke holding it seemed friendly enough, so he approached him. The Doctor had to tap him on the shoulder to get his attention as the music was too loud for carrying on a reasonable conversation.

“Can I borrow that a mo?” He pointed at the phone. The man stared at him for a moment in slight confusion.

“It’s just my battery died and I got to call for a lift home.” The Doctor improvised putting on what he hoped looked like a desperate expression. The man shrugged and handed his phone over and thankfully walked away a bit to allow the Doctor some privacy for his “call”.

The Doctor donned his glasses and started his search. He swore under his breath as the connection was so much slower than he’d anticipated and he discretely pulled out the sonic and trained it at the screen. Images and text started to flash across it, too fast to be interpreted by a human, but the Doctor soaked up the information like a sponge. Then the information he was looking for flashed across the screen and it nearly stopped his hearts.

_** HC Clements, sole proprietor ** _ _** — ** _ _** Torchwood ** _

Just when he thought he was done with their idiocy, they just had to go and rear their ugly head again. Righteous anger flashed through him and he just stopped himself from crushing the phone in his hand. He took a few breaths and calmly closed the phone’s Internet browser after sonicing it again to wipe his search results clean. He paused a moment, then soniced the phone a third time, this time activating universal roaming (limited to Earth of course, he wasn’t _that_ generous) and giving it an unlimited battery as a sign of thanks.

After placing the phone onto the bar, the Doctor cast his gaze across the room. Happy dancing couples surrounded him, and he absently watched one young couple in particular. The man is handsome enough, the Doctor supposes and the woman is quite pretty herself. Her long blonde hair fans around her as her partner guides her through several dance steps, then he dips her back. Suddenly the memory of catching a fainting Rose back on New Earth jumps to the front of his mind. He hadn’t yet held her that close since he regenerated. Now that she was in his arms he didn’t want to let go. If only Chip, or rather Cassandra, hadn’t interrupted them.

Despite this pleasant memory, a feeling of complete and utter loneliness stabbed at his hearts; an echo of an aborted timeline. He knew that he had been two distinct timelines battling for dominance just the day before. It was also well within the realm of possibility that a whole other universe could have been created, a universe where Rose Tyler would have been lost to him. He sucked in a breath through his teeth. He shouldn’t have been able to feel the emotions of an alternative him locked away in a parallel world. Perhaps this particular point in time had a bit of a weak spot. Perhaps more than one universe where he lost Rose popped into existence. Maybe there was one where he never met Donna.

He shook his head and forced himself back into the moment. He could see Rose weaving her way through the room, and their eyes met. She frowned at him slightly evidentially picking up on his mood. Their minds never needed to be linked in order for her to be able to get a good read on how he was feeling. Perhaps Rose had always been a bit of an empath. He smiled at her, feeling ever so grateful that he was living in a universe where she was still there with him. Rose responded with a smile of her own and the Doctor only just stopped himself from marching himself over there and kissing her silly.

Maybe later. There was still so much work to be done. 

The Doctor scans the crowd again, this time his eyes land on Lance. Was he part of Torchwood? Or was he unwittingly a part of something sinister he had no control over? Either way, this man would be the key to unlocking this mystery, of that he was certain. They had to stay close to him and Donna until they figured this out. He then spotted Rose waving at him excitedly from across the dance floor. There were too many people between them for him to see clearly what she was eager to show him, but as he got closer a wide grin split his face in two. Rose was standing next to someone who appeared to be hired to film the entire wedding and reception.

“Take it you found something!” He beamed at her when he got close.

“That’s the understatement of the century!” Rose smiled back, then she turned to the cameraman, “Show him what you filmed, Jim.” The cameraman, Jim, nodded as he pressed a series of buttons on the side of the camera.

“ Oh, I taped the whole thing. They’ve all had a look. They said ‘sell it to  _ You’ve Been Framed’ _ . I said, ‘more like the news’. Here we are.”

The Doctor huddled in closer to the camera and focused on the small screen. He stared in disbelief at the sight of Donna being surrounded by golden light and disappearing.

“Can’t be.” He breathed. “Play it again?” Jim shrugged and began to rewind the tape.

“Clever, mind. Good trick. I’ll give her that. I was clapping.” Jim continued on, completely oblivious to the worry that had begun to descend on the Doctor.

“But that looks like Huon Particles.” He stared at Rose in alarm, and she stared back nonplussed.

“And what are they when they’re at home?” She asked.

“That’s impossible. That’s ancient. Huon energy doesn’t exist any more, not for billions of years.” Panic gripped his hearts, and he nearly toppled Jim’s tripod in his rush to get outside. “So old that it can’t be hidden by a bio-damper!” He exclaimed as he skidded to a halt when he saw a line up of Robo-Santas standing at the edge of the grass. Rose collided with his back in her effort to keep up.

“They followed us!” She cried as she peered around his shoulder, then she grabbed at his arm. “Doctor, there’s a giant Christmas tree in there! You don’t think they’d try _that_ trick again?” While he was unconscious for most of it, he remembered the Christmas tree ripping through Rose’s flat nearly killing them all.

He gulped, not taking his eyes of the soulless masks in front of them.

“Rose, go grab Donna.”

* * *

Donna was having the time of her life. True, her day started off being more insane than she could ever imagine and now she had an alien and his human girlfriend to thank for saving her life. But they got her back to Lance, her family and friends, and she couldn’t be more thankful. Perhaps she’d invite them to her wedding after she re-booked it. She loved the idea of July. Nice and warm. Far away from this incessant Christmas cheer. Perfect!

She was happy her new friends—yeah, she considered them friends now—were having a good time despite the situation. She had even caught a glimpse of them having a cheeky snog outside. What Rose saw in that beanpole was still beyond her, but they seemed so in love and she could appreciate that.

Donna dragged her eyes away from Lance who she had been holding close since she got reunited with him, and looked around the room to see if she could spot the strange couple anywhere. The search didn’t take very long at all; Rose running up to her.

“Donna, you have got to come with me right now. The bio-damper isn’t working.” Rose’s voice was calm, but urgent.

“But the Doctor said…” Donna started, but stopped when Rose began shaking her head.

“He was wrong. They found us.” Panic started to rise in Donna as she took a look around the room.

“What are you talking about?” Lance was glaring at Rose. “Who found you?”

“Doesn't matter.” Rose waved him off. “We just have to get as far away from that as possible.” Donna followed Rose’s finger and saw the giant Christmas tree in the corner decorated with large red baubles. She also saw the Doctor urgently trying to herd people away from it, but nearly everyone was ignoring him. Before Donna had the chance to comment, she heard her mother pipe up.

“Oh, for God’s sakes, the man’s an idiot. Why? What harm’s a Christmas tree going to…” She trailed off. The baubles had all floated off the tree and were now floating in mid air. The effect was mesmerising and all eyes in the room were locked onto them. 

“Not again.” Donna heard Rose groan behind her, pulling hard on her hand to get her to move. But Donna was still fully transfixed. Floating baubles? It wasn’t the craziest thing she’d seen all day, but there was just something about them.

Before she could give it any more thought, the baubles zipped around in every direction and started to explode. Objects and people were flung in every direction. Donna looked on in horror as one of her workmates was thrown into the air by the force of one of the explosions and ended up face-first in her wedding cake. People started to scream and nearly bowled others over in the rush to duck for cover.

Finally, Donna began to move. A nearby table had been overturned and she shoved a still paralysed Lance behind it. She threw her arm around Rose and pulled her close as a bauble came within mere inches of her head. The blonde smiled gratefully at her. In all the chaos Donna suddenly realised she’d lost track of the Doctor. As insane as he was, Donna had to admit that aside from Rose, he was the only one who had any clue what was going on. She was just about to ask Rose if she’d seen him but then the Doctor could be heard shouting, his voice was strong and clear over the panic of the crowd. 

“ Oi! Santa!” Donna  chanced a peek over the top of the table  towards where his voice was coming from, and saw him standing at the DJ booth and addressing six of those Robo-Santas who were standing  right next to bar.  What was that idiot doing standing right out in the open like that?  But there didn’t seem to be any hint of fear on the Doctor’s face as he continued,  “ Word of advice: if you’re attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver,” He flipped a microphone up in the air and caught it deftly in his hand and then spoke into it, amplifying his voice even more, “don’t let him near the sound system.” He then took that weird stick-thingy out of his pocket and jammed it into a port in the booth.

The sound was deafening. It was the same high pitched whirr she heard the thing make earlier, but a hundred times louder. She had no choice but to clamp her hands over her ears. But she could still hear it! Her bones vibrated within her, and she thought she was going to go deaf for good. Thankfully, the sound cut out just as quickly as it began. She gingerly took her hands away from her ears and shot a worried glance in Rose’s direction. The poor girl had such a stressful day already; Donna thought she had died in her arms earlier! But now she didn’t look that worse for wear! In fact she seemed to have more energy than ever. Rose quickly picked herself up and had run over to the Doctor who looked to be examining the remains of the Robo-Santas. His sonic thingamabobber had reduced them to scrap. Donna would have been impressed if it weren’t for all the injured people laying around her.

Donna called out to some of her guests, and felt relief sluice through her when she realised that other than a few bumps and bruises they seemed to be fine. Still there were others that looked like they had gotten a bit more injured in the fray.

“What is it? What were they?” Lance had started to panic. Donna couldn’t exactly blame him, but she was ready to leave those questions to the Doctor and Rose.

“Just stop wittering. Just help them.” Donna suggested gesturing to a group of terrified kids huddled in the corner. Lance hesitated for only a moment more before he started pitching in as Donna carefully picked her way over to the Doctor and Rose. True to form, the Doctor was hunched over a smouldering pile of scrap metal already babbling away as he dug around the remains of one of the Robo-Santas.

“Look at that. Remote control for the decorations,” He handed Rose a small handheld device with several large red buttons attached that sort of resembled a video game controller. “But there’s a second remote control for the robots.”

“Someone’s controlling them now? They’re not scavengers any more!” Concluded Rose. The Doctor nodded and hummed in agreement with Rose’s assessment.

“Looks like. I think someone’s taken possession.”

“Never mind all that.” Donna cut in, even though the thought of even more aliens arriving and ruining her day was causing her blood pressure to rise. Rose looked over at her, but the Doctor paid her no mind as he was still fixated on digging through the smoking scrap, “You’re a doctor. People have been hurt.”

“Nah, they wanted you alive. Look.” He casually tossed her something, and Donna caught it before she realised it was one of the red baubles. “They’re not active now.” Donna tossed the bauble away as if it burned her, but it bounced harmlessly away.

“All I’m saying, you could help.” Donna suggested kindly, hoping he didn’t just have a doctorate in cheesemaking or Lego or something and him being called ‘The Doctor’ was an actual title and not just because his parents were hippies. It was even more surprising to her that Rose hadn’t even lifted a finger to help any of the guests.

“Got to think of the bigger picture.” The Doctor said. He then suddenly grabbed one of the robot’s heads ripping it straight off the now limp body and sprinted off outside with Rose close on his heels shouting: “There’s still a signal!”

Donna moved to follow him, but was stopped by her mother.

“Donna, who are those two?” She couldn’t even begin to answer her. Not like her mother would believe her anyway. Her mother had never subscribed to the belief in aliens like her Gramps did. She decided to leave the question hanging for now and jogged after the Doctor and Rose. Would she ever be able to explain it?

She caught up with them out in the car park. The Doctor was busy waving his strange tool over the Robo-Santa’s head.

“There’s someone behind this, directing the roboforms.” He was muttering.

“Can you tell who?” Rose asked him and The Doctor just shook his head ‘no’. Donna felt she had a more important question to ask.

“But why is it me? What have I done?” While she adored being the centre of attention sometimes, this wasn’t the way she wanted it to happen. If people ended up dying because these Robo-Santas were after her, Donna didn’t think she could live with herself. She had gotten the gist of what the Doctor was trying to say to her earlier on the rooftop before Rose cut him off: she was just a normal garden-variety human. Not special in the least. Rose laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, but the Doctor only spared her a quick glance.

“If we find the controller, we’ll find that out. Ooh!” He slowly brought his screwdriver up and pointed it upwards over their heads. “It’s up there. Something in the sky.” Then the screwdriver stopped making that whirring sound and he let out a frustrated grunt and he shoved it back into his pocket. “I’ve lost the signal Donna, we’ve got to get to your office. HC Clements. I think that’s where it all started.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Donna spotted Lance walking towards them. But before she could say or do anything, the Doctor was already bounding towards him.

“Lance! Is it Lance?” He didn’t wait for anyone to answer. “Lance, can you give us all a lift?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter chapter, but this was also the best place I felt I should cut it off. Hopefully the next chapter won't take too long to finish.


	5. The Runaway Bride (Part 4)

Finding a way to get back to London was only slightly trickier said than done. While Lance had a car that could comfortably fit everybody, he had been drinking and while he wasn’t exactly drunk Donna still refused to let him drive. Donna also refused to drive Lance’s car as he had yet to add her to his insurance plan. And there was absolutely no way she was going to let the Doctor or Rose drive Lance’s car.

As for Donna’s car, well the Doctor liked the shade of blue it was painted, but unlike his blue vehicle it was decidedly not bigger on the inside. Three adults might be able to fit if one squeezed into the hatchback boot bit in the back. Rose could possibly make herself small enough, but the Doctor would have had to fold himself into a pretzel. Needless to say, they were not taking Donna’s car either.

Then the Doctor had an idea. A quite brilliant idea if he did say so himself. He would only need the tiniest bit of sleight of hand to get it to work. The Police had arrived a few minutes ago in response to the 999 call one of the party guests eventually made. Several cruisers were parked nearby and he strode purposefully towards one, hopefully giving himself an air of authority. It always worked. Well, often. Sometimes he ended up in a cell, but that was a rare occurrence. That happened three times last month.

But that wasn’t the point and had nothing to do with what was going on now.

A young, bored looking PC sat at the wheel of one of the cruisers but he sat up straight in his seat when he caught sight of the psychic paper. If the Doctor was playing his cards right it should be showing the PC exactly what the he wanted him to see, or at the very least what the PC expected to see.

“Uhhh, what can I do for you, Detective Inspector?” Oh, he liked the sound of that. This should be like trying to take candy from a baby. Well, a human baby at least.

“I’m afraid I have tae commandeer yer vehicle.” The Scots accent wasn’t exactly necessary, and a part of his brain thought he sounded more like Uncle Scrooge than some sort of hard-boiled DI. But he thought it could add some flair and hopefully help to confuse the officers enough so he make his escape before this day ended up in a police chase. The PC blinked at him for a moment, but eventually shrugged and stepped out of the car, allowing the Doctor to slide in and take his place at the wheel.

“Thanks, PC… erm…?” He squinted at the PC’s uniform looking for a name badge.

“Parsons, Sir.”

“Ay, Parsons! That’s right. Good. Now, Parsons, ya cannae just stand round ‘ere, go be a good lad and see if ya can lend a hand in there.” The Doctor didn’t wait for a reply as he left the poor PC standing where he was and drove the car up to where Rose, Donna and Lance were all standing lightly tapping on the horn to get their attention.

“Oi, Lewis!” The Doctor called out. Rose swung around to face him, immediately recognizing the alias he made up for her the last time they pretended to be police. Her jaw dropped to the ground and he smiled cheekily back.

“I can’t believe you sometimes!” Rose shook her head, but she couldn’t stop the smile blossoming on her face. She was getting used to all the alternate forms of transportation they’ve had to acquire during their travels, but this was the first time they’ve ever swiped a police car. On Earth at least.

Donna and Lance however were much, much less impressed.

“How’d you manage… wait, no. Never mind. It’s probably some freaky alien thing you did in order to steal it.

Still, I don’t want to look like I’m going to jail in my wedding dress!” Donna just stared at him aghast. Of course she was going to complain. It was sort of becoming her thing.

“Oh c’mon Donna. Think of it as a police escort instead. I mean, you’ve seen the outside of the TARDIS. It’s got ‘Police’ written on all sides. How’s this different.” Rose wheedled. Donna huffed before gathering up her skirt and climbed into the back seat dragging Lance behind her.

“Great so it’ll look like I’ve been arrested twice then! Whatever. At least this car isn’t alien, or driven by one of those insane Santa things, although an insane Martian ain’t much better.” The Doctor rolled his eyes but managed to keep his mouth shut this time. Not that he could have gotten a word in edgeways because Donna kept talking, “But you couldn’t have picked something with more comfortable seats? It even _smells_ like jail back here.” The Doctor idly wondered how she would know what jail smelled like. Maybe Donna was more fun than he initially thought. Lance opened his mouth to say something, but the Doctor honestly had no patience for his wittering too and just cut him off.

“It’s better than that sardine can you call a car. Right then, _allons-y!”_ The Doctor barely waited until everyone was settled before he sped off, lights and sirens blazing.

As he predicted it took a fraction of the time to get out of Chiswick and back to Central London. He never really paid much attention to traffic laws on the best of days, but the Doctor was still amused by how many traffic lights he could just breeze through without any repercussions while the other cars in the road moved to the side to let them pass. Even Rose was laughing beside him during the trip back and he couldn’t help but reach over at one point to take her hand. But then he realised the police cruiser had a manual gear box and he just barely shifted gears in time. The slip up was worth it for Rose’s laugh alone.

While Donna was quite vocal about the Doctor’s apparent lack of driving skills (he could drive just fine, thank you very much. It wasn’t his fault that human vehicles were so badly designed), she was able to give directions to the HC Clements office building and they soon came to a screeching halt in front of it. Finally, they were so much closer to answers. The Doctor bolted out of the car and was well into the lobby before he realised no one appeared to be following him. Annoyed, he swung around and then remembered one important thing: the back doors of police cars don’t open from the inside. It made sense really, the police wouldn’t want those they deemed to be criminals escaping, even if the locks on human police cruisers were laughably primitive. He bounced impatiently on his toes waiting for Rose to let Donna and Lance out of the car.

“Thanks for waiting.” Rose smiled at him when she caught up, but he caught the slight sarcasm in her voice. He mumbled an apology as Donna began to lead the way.

“C’mon, my desk is on the third floor.” She hiked up her skirt and began bounding up the stairs. When they made it to Donna’s desk the Doctor began to reveal what he had learned while he started typing madly at her computer in the hopes of digging up even more information.

“To you lot this might just be locksmiths, but HC Clements was brought up twenty three years ago by the Torchwood Institute.” He banged the top of the monitor with his fist. Why did human technology need to be so finicky? From the corner of his eye he saw the colour drain from Rose’s face and his hearts clenched sympathetically in his chest knowing her feelings about that place matched his.

“Really? Torchwood? But I thought we…” Rose trailed off when the Doctor started to shake his head sadly.

“Who are they?” Donna asked, this time understandably confused. The Doctor punched the top of the monitor in frustration once more as the machine still wasn’t co-operating with him and he quickly moved to another computer. He did a quick and discrete Internet search looking for what history would call that bleak day. Sure enough it was given a name that was both simple and to the point.

“They were behind the battle of Canary Wharf.” Donna just stared blankly at him. How could she not know about it? They were only a few months in the future. It was probably headline news, everyone must have been talking about it. He attempted to clarify. “Cyberman invasion. Skies over London full of Daleks?”

“Oh, I was in Spain.” Donna explained.

“The Cybermen were everywhere! In every country.” Rose sounded just as flabbergasted as the Doctor felt. Donna only shrugged.

“Scuba diving.” Was she for real? First she missed the entire Sycorax invasion because she apparently had a hangover and now this? How could someone walk through life and miss gigantic things like that? Was she asleep when the Nesteene Consciousness tried to invade? In the bath when the Slitheen were taking over Downing Street? Whatever the case, there was something very odd about Donna Noble.

“That big picture, Donna. You keep on missing it.” The Doctor squinted up at Donna before he started typing again as he kept on explaining, “Torchwood was destroyed, but HC Clements stayed in business. I think someone else came in and took over the operation.”

“But what do they want with me?” Donna cried out in frustration. The Doctor’s gaze on her softened slightly and he decided that now was probably the best time to explain properly to her what he was able to deduce about what was happening to her so far. He stood up straight and faced her.

“Somehow you’ve been dosed with Huon energy. And that’s a problem, because Huon energy hasn’t existed since the Dark Times. The only place you’d find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the…” Oh, he was thick! He should send out for a new brain as this one was obviously defective! Did Kerblam still offer free out of galaxy shipping? He stared at Rose with wide eyes. This could go a long way to help explain a thing or two about what was happening to her.

“In the _what_?” Donna snapped. The Doctor swallowed hard, this throat suddenly very dry.

“In the heart of the TARDIS.” He saw the realisation dawn on Rose’s face. She had been directly exposed to Huon energy when she looked into the heart of the TARDIS, it’s what caused him to regenerate when he took the vortex out of her.

He realised Donna was also still staring at him, demanding an explanation. Once again, he had to put what was happening to Rose on the back burner despite the fact he was just itching to get to the bottom of everything. He cleared his throat so his frustration hopefully wouldn’t come through in his voice and continued, “See? That’s what happened. Say, that’s the TARDIS,” He picked up a coffee mug and waved it in the air, “and that’s you.” He picked up a pencil with his other hand and held it up and shook both objects, “The particles inside you activated. The two sets of particles magnetised and _whap!_ ” He dropped the pencil into the mug, “You were pulled inside the TARDIS.” Donna still looked a bit lost.

“I’m a pencil inside a mug?”

“Yes, you are. 4H. Sums you up.” Rose stared pointedly at him. Oh, right. He needed to be less rude. He’ll work on that later probably. Once this insanity passed and he was able to focus on much more important things.

The Doctor turned to address the other person in the room who may have had any clue what was happening in this company. “Lance? What was HC Clements working on? Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?”

“I don’t know. I’m in charge of personnel. I wasn’t project manager. Why am I even explaining myself? What the hell are we talking about?” The more he spoke the more angry Lance got. But was it just frustration, or was he truly hiding something? The Doctor was having a bit of a hard time getting a good read on him, and that was saying something.

“They make keys, that’s the point.” The Doctor had turned his attention back to the computer in front of him and finally found what he was looking for: a plan of the building. He pointed on the screen at the room they were all standing in, “We’re on the third floor. Underneath reception, there’s a basement, yes?” He pointed that out on the plans as well and everyone nodded in agreement. The Doctor then bolted over to the nearby lift and opened the door. “Then how come when you look on the lift there’s a button marked lower basement?” Rose had joined up with him and smiled at his discovery.

“There’s an entire floor that they never put on the plans! So what do you think they’re hiding down there?” Rose mused.

“Are you telling me this building’s got a secret floor?” Lance snapped. Rose rolled her eyes at the incredibly daft question.

“You’re saying you’ve been working here, allocating people to do work all over the building and you never once noticed there’s an entire floor that’s just sittin’ there ready to be used?” Rose snapped back at Lance.

“It needs a key.” Donna pointed out slightly less redundantly as the button did indeed have a keyhole carved into the centre of it.

“I don’t.” The Doctor countered, pulling out his screwdriver and sonicing the locked off button that gave way with a soft click. So that was it, he figured out how Donna got into the TARDIS and that HC Clements was now Torchwood owned and there was a whole lower basement filled with secrets. He could finally get Donna off his back for now. She was an absolute trouble magnet and he just wanted things to go smoothly for once, even if she was slowly growing on him. She could be loud and obnoxious, but she did have a good heart. Too bad she was engaged to an idiot. “Right then! Thanks, you two. Rose can I can handle this on our own. See you later.” He waved politely at them, or at least resisted the urge to make a rude hand gesture in Lance’s general direction.

“No chance, Martian. You two keep saving my life. I ain’t letting you out of my sight.” Donna shook her head at him and stepped boldly into the lift. Of course Donna had a stubborn streak a mile long and would be hard to get rid of. He sighed in resignation as he really should have seen that coming.

“Going down.” He announced, even though Lance was still standing in the hallway. Donna wasn’t having any of that.“Lance?” She snapped just as the Doctor’s finger hovered near the ‘close door’ button.

“Maybe I should go to the police.” Lance whined, fear and panic clearly etched onto his face.

“Inside!” Donna ordered, and Lance finally stepped hesitantly into the lift.

“To honour and obey?” The Doctor muttered slightly under his breath.

“Tell me about it, mate.” Lance sighed.

“OI!” Both women cried and the men winced.

* * *

The lift doors closed and they started to make their way down. No one spoke during the long ride, not even the Doctor who would normally be chatting away and crafting theories about what he thought was going on. Rose slipped her hand into his and his fingers curled so tightly around hers that his grip was bordering on being painful. Their strange connection opened up once more and she could feel how nervous he was. Canary Wharf was such a close call for the both of them and the idea of dealing with Torchwood again was terrifying.

Rose took a few deep and controlled breaths as his nervous energy began mixing with hers. She rubbed her thumb over his inner wrist and eventually his grip relaxed into a more comfortable hold.

“ _I don’t know what we’re about to find down here, so please stay close to me.”_ The Doctor spoke directly into her mind. And was it just her imagination or did she also hear a distinctly Northern voice echoing, _“Don’t wander off”_? At the moment she couldn’t be sure if that was just her memory of his former voice or not.

“ _Nah, I was planning on swanning off as soon as the doors opened.”_ Rose joked attempting to lighten the mood. She was finding it easier and easier to communicate to him telepathically and she didn’t need so much concentration on her part in order to get it to work. Any other time she had to telepathically speak to another was through the conduit they opened, and it always gave her a headache and filled her with unease as she was never sure they’d read her entire mind without her permission.

“ _Cheeky.”_ There was a distinct smile in his voice, even if his face looked a bit impassive. That’s when Rose felt it, that bit of her mind that seemed to, well, have a mind of it’s own was once again rushing towards the Doctor’s presence. Every time this happened he would close their connection off, and Rose had to bite back a scream almost every time. This was the closest she ever felt to another person and having that connection dulled even a little bit wasn’t exactly pleasant. She didn’t understand why part of her mind wanted to invade his all of a sudden, and the Doctor never berated her for not keeping her mind fully in check. Maybe his mind just had a built in defense mechanism even he wasn’t fully in control of.

She closed her eyes and looked inward. With some difficulty she halted the part of her mind rushing towards his and pushed it back further into hers. A wave of surprise washed over her.

“ _You’re getting better at this telepathy thing.”_ The Doctor said. _“You have any idea how much control it takes to push that down?”_

“ _You ever going to explain to me what_ that _is?”_ She tried not to sound frustrated, but knew it was impossible for him not to feel her emotions at that moment. Although Rose couldn’t hear what the Doctor was thinking, she could still tell he was trying to properly gather his thoughts, even though she could also tell he was just aching to tell her.

The lift chime dinged as they came to a stop, and Donna charged towards the now open door startling the Doctor into dropping her hand and abruptly breaking their connection.

“Where are we? Well, what does on down here?” Donna asked. Rose watched as a muscle twitched inside the Doctor’s jaw.

“Let’s find out.” He ground through his teeth as he exited the lift and Rose followed with Lance still lagging behind. They had stepped into a corridor, dimly lit in an eerie green light. It was cold, and Rose could see water dripping down one of the walls. Other than the lift, there appeared to be no doors in sight.

“Do you think Mister Clements knows about this place?” Donna asked sounding slightly dumbfounded.

“The mysterious HC Clements?” Rose could hear the sarcasm dripping off of the Doctor’s voice, “I think he’s part of it.” His eyes darted all over the place, and then stopped when he noticed something. There was a certain amused glint in his eyes that Rose had seen before. No matter how bad things got, the Doctor always seemed to find something shiny and interesting. A boyish grin stretched across his face.

“Oh, look. Transport.” He bounded over to these odd looking two wheeled vehicles in the corner. Segways. Rose only knew the name because of one of Mickey’s mates who worked in a large warehouse used them every day at work. Of course they would tickle the Doctor’s fancy. To be fair to him, they would get them around faster than walking. But there were only three, and Rose knew Donna wasn’t about to let Lance get left behind no matter how much of a nob he was.

The Doctor seemed to understand this too as he pulled the segways away from the wall one by one, first handing one to Donna, then one to Lance who looked annoyed and put off by the whole thing. When he got to the last one he held it steady and nodded for Rose to get on it. Was he just going to jog along side? It wasn’t like him to pass up the opportunity to take something like this for a spin.

“Go on. Room enough for two.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and his plan clicked in her mind. Rose wasted no more time stepping up onto the segway, and it only jostled slightly when the Doctor stepped up behind her. There was barely enough room for both of them, but Rose wasn’t about to complain. Personal space seemed to be a foreign concept ever since he regenerated, and even less of a thing since they decided to step their relationship up to the next level. It took them a moment to co-ordinate their balance, but within moments they were rolling smoothly away.

Then something happened that Rose didn’t expect: Donna started laughing. The absurdity of what they all must look like riding on these silly machines caught up with Rose, and she couldn’t help but laugh too. She could also feel the Doctor’s laugh rumble through his chest as he wasn’t immune to the infectious laughter either. Lance, bless him, was still looking at them like they all lost their minds. Maybe they had and for one tiny moment it was okay. The laughing was just the small release they all needed. Rose could feel some of the muscles in the Doctor’s body relax slightly, and she felt a thrill shoot through her when he burred his nose in her hair in order to try and control his laughter.

But the laughter all tapered off when they reached a large metal door that looked more like it belonged in a submarine than down in that dank basement. Large imposing letters were painted on the door’s surface:

**TORCHWOOD. AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY.**

She felt the Doctor lean back, and the segway began to slow down. Rose barely had a chance to adjust her balance to fully activate the breaks before the Doctor hopped off. He bounded towards the door and grabbed hold of the wheel keeping it locked and spun it open revealing a small room with a ladder leading upwards.

“Wait here. Just need to get my bearings. Don’t do anything.” The Doctor looked pointedly at Donna and Lance. Rose snapped off a mock salute as he began to climb.

“You’d better come back.” Donna called out after him.

“I couldn’t get rid of you if I tried.” The Doctor called back. Rose had to bite her lip to keep a straight face as he heard him mutter, “And believe me I’ve tried.”

Rose watched the Doctor as he climbed, thoroughly enjoying the view from her angle. Beside her, Lance was starting to panic again.

“Donna, have you thought about this? Properly? I mean, this is serious! What the hell are we going to do?”

Donna only smiled.

“Oh, I thought July.”

Rose couldn’t believe her ears. Why would Donna still be considering marrying this guy, especially after the stunt he pulled with the reception. Lance was dancing awfully close to that blonde bint, far too close to just be platonic friends. She was just about to launch herself into a discussion as to why she thought Lance was no good for Donna as the Doctor dropped back down from the ladder.

“Thames flood barrier right on top of us.” He announced. Rose blinked. They had travelled much farther than she thought as they weren’t anywhere near the river bank when they drove in.

“And of course Torchwood just had to sneak in and build this right here. I think I’m starting to see a pattern.” Rose affected a sigh. Donna stared at them nonplussed.

“What, there’s like a secret base hidden underneath a major London landmark?” She asked. The Doctor’s eyes widened dramatically.

“Oh, I know. Unheard of.” Was his sardonic reply as he started walking towards another doorway. As Rose started to follow him, an odd sensation pricked at the back of her mind. It almost felt like the connection she was starting to have with the Doctor every time they touched, but they were separated by a good few feet now. She sucked in a deep breath as she reached the doorway beyond which appeared to be a vast laboratory. Large glass vats of bubbling water were placed at regular intervals attached to each other by steel pipes. The Doctor knocked on one of the vats. That sparkle of discovery in his eyes was always something she found endearing.

“Ooh, look at this. Stunning!” Despite everything, he was grinning ear to ear. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his glasses to get a better look, or to make himself look more sexy and intelligent. Rose figured it was more the former because he seemed a bit clueless about how others saw him sometimes. So much for his superior physiology if he actually needed glasses. He looked up at her, a slightly affronted look on his face, as if she had spoken those words aloud. But it was more than that, she could actually feel his annoyance. Then she felt confusion and then genuine shock. His shock!

She shook her head to try and clear it. Then she felt something that she could only describe as the mental equivalent of one of those privacy curtains they used in hospitals being drawn between them, and the Doctor frowned almost apologetically at her.

So it wasn’t her imagination. This connection between them was growing deeper causing their minds to link even without the need to touch, and Rose would bet whatever was left in her bank account that something in this room was the cause.

“What does it do?” Donna asked as she stared open-mouthed at all the equipment surrounding them.

“Particle extrusion.” The Doctor answered, his voice sounding slightly strained. He bounded over to another vat and picked up a smaller water filled vial that was attached, “Hold on. Brilliant. They’ve been manufacturing Huon particles. Course, my people got rid of Huons. They unravel the atomic structure.”

“Your people?” Lance cut in. “Who are they? What company do you represent?”

“Oh, we’re just freelancers.” The Doctor waved his hand airily obviously not wanting to go into the details about him being an alien and the fact that they travelled in time and space. Then the Doctor went into what Rose liked to call ‘professor mode’. “But this lot are rebuilding them. They’ve been using the river. Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they’ve got the end result, Huon particles in liquid form.”

“And that’s what’s inside me?” Donna asked. The Doctor took hold of a small knob on the top of the vial he was holding and twisted it.

* * *

The Doctor watched in fascination as the Huon particles inside the vial all began to swirl around and glow in a glittery golden hue. The same effect surrounded Donna and she cried out in shock. And then there was Rose…

“ROSE!” The vial slipped out of the Doctor’s now nerveless fingers and shattered against the concrete floor. The particles around Donna were snuffed out, but the ones surrounding Rose were still bright as ever flitting around her like tiny fireflies. She looked exactly like she did when she had absorbed the Time Vortex, golden glowing eyes and all. Except she wasn’t acting like a goddess of time. She had her hands outstretched in front of her and her head cocked slightly to the side, that adorable little furrow between her brow she always got when she was trying to work something out.

“I’m fine, Doctor.” Rose soothed. Rose, not the ethereal voice of Bad Wolf. Just _Rose_. She looked up and Donna let out a horrified gasp. The Doctor’s feet became unglued from the floor and he stepped cautiously up to her.

“I guess you missed a few particles,” She shrugged as she smiled up at him.

“Rose…” he started but no other words came. His hearts hammered in his chest. This couldn’t be. He had been absolutely thorough, even though the pleasure of finally being able to kiss her had given way to excruciating physical pain when he drew the vortex out of her. And he had checked. Had the TARDIS secretly run a whole battery of scans on her that all told him he had rid her of every single particle.

Unless?

No.

That couldn’t be!

Except, maybe, just maybe.

It was the only thing that made sense in the end.

Could the TARDIS have lied to him?

But _why_?

If he didn’t already have enough things to scream at his ship about. Why would this be something She’d keep from him? He thought there were no secrets between a Time Lord and their TARDIS. But it seemed like he was being proven wrong.

Rose took a step closer to him and cradled his jaw in her hand.

“ _Doctor, I’m fine. Really I am. My mind isn’t burning like last time. It actually feels really good.”_ He hissed in a breath through his teeth and took a step back. Rose frowned at him slightly and the golden glow finally, _finally_ began to fade. Her eyes, however, still had a slight golden glint to them that would be absolutely beautiful if he wasn’t so freaked out by the whole thing.

“Rose was dosed with all these Huon things too?” Donna’s voice startled him out of his out of control thoughts. The Doctor’s mouth worked for a few moments before he was able to come up with a coherent answer.

“Well, sort of. It’s complicated, and something I thought I had already sorted ages ago.” He finally managed. Donna nodded her head gravely, and thankfully didn’t push for a further explanation. He hadn’t even told Rose absolutely everything about that day. But she still had one more question.

“Just tell me, Doctor. These particles, are Rose and I safe?”

“Yes.” He squeaked, trying very hard to convince himself as well. It wasn’t working.

“Doctor,” Donna placed her hand gently on his shoulder and turned him so she was eye to eye with him, “If your lot got rid of Huon particles, why did they do that?” The Doctor swallowed hard. Donna implored him her eyes, but for once he was at a complete loss of what to say. The truth was too horrible and for the first time in his life he didn’t have a convenient lie left to tell.

“Because they were deadly.” Rose didn’t sugar-coat the truth, but her tone was just as kind as always. Despite that Donna still looked like she was going to be ill. She covered her mouth with her hands and folded in on herself.

“Oh my god!”

“I’ll sort it out, Donna.” The Doctor said softly placing a hand on her shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. “Whatever’s been done to you, I’ll reverse it. I am not about to lose you.” The level of sincerity in his words actually startled him a little. Not even thirty minutes ago, he was ready to just leave Donna and Lance and just continue on with Rose. But this fiery stubborn red-head had somehow wormed her way into his hearts. Perhaps someday they could be proper friends.

“Oh, she is long since lost.” A lisping feminine sounding voice boomed throughout the laboratory startling everyone. The far wall that had appeared to be solid concrete started to slide upward revealing a room beyond filled with several black robed roboforms holding deadly looking guns. But there was still no indication of whom was speaking as the voice continued, “I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken! And now there appears to be two! What a welcoming surprise!”

Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor spotted Lance’s face had turned ashen and he ran away. The Doctor let him go. At least he would be out of the way. The roboforms raised their weapons and trained them on the Doctor, Rose and Donna.

The Doctor resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Guns pointed at him barely phased him any more. He stepped forward, keeping his gait as casual as possible, but stopped just short of the gigantic hole cut in the floor. It was perfectly circular and he wished there was a loose pebble nearby he could kick inside it to gage how deep it was as he couldn’t see a bottom. Memories of another chasm jumped to his mind, and he idly wondered what brand of evil was lurking in the depths of this one, but he didn’t have the urge to jump into this one to find out.

“Someone’s been digging.” He kept his tone light and conversational, “Oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?”

“Down and down, all the way to the centre of the Earth!” The voice answered.

“Really? Seriously? What for?” The Doctor scrunched his nose.

“Dinosaurs.” Donna suggested. The Doctor blinked. Of all the answers that anyone could have given, that one didn’t make a lick of sense.

“What?” He looked at her. Oh, she was being absolutely serious.

“Dinosaurs?” She tried again. The Doctor wracked his brain for any sort of connection. There were perhaps a few Silurians alive down there somewhere, and they were kind of related to Earth’s dinosaurs, but Donna would have no way of knowing about them. And there was no way he was going to tell her.

“What’s this about dinosaurs?” Rose asked sounding slightly impatient and incredibly confused.

“That film, _Under the Earth_ , with dinosaurs. Trying to help.”

“That’s not helping.” The Doctor sighed turning back to look for any indication of who he was talking to.

“Such a sweet trio you are.” The voice announced sounding oh so amused. The Doctor let out a growl low in his throat and raked his hand through his hair so he wouldn’t go and throttle one of those roboforms, no matter how much he wanted to. This was getting incredibly tedious.

“Only a madman talks to thin air, and trust me, you don’t want to make me mad. Where are you?” He demanded his temper rising even further.

“High in the sky. Floating so high on Christmas night.” Okay, fine, she was in orbit, or at least within communications distance. It was hard to tell, each species had different transmission capabilities. With the TARDIS still a ways away, that still wasn’t helping very much to narrowing down just who he was talking to. He just wanted to see who had the audacity to orchestrate everything that was going on.

“We didn’t come all this way for me to just talk on the intercom! Come on, let’s have a look at you!” The Doctor demanded, his patience finally snapping.

“Who are you with such command?” The voice sneered.

“I’m the Doctor.” A cackling laugh was his only response.

“Prepare your best medicines, doctor man, for you will be sick at heart.” The air shimmered in front of him, and coalesced into a sight so impossible that almost stopped both his hearts dead in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, I could not resist those references. Any chance I have to make Ten sound Scottish I am going to take!


End file.
